Undead Drama
by hyperborea
Summary: After the success of TDWT, Chris McLean brings back all 25 contestants to Camp Wawanakwa for the final season of Total Drama! But while they're competing in their first challenge, the island comes under attack by the horrific undead horrors: zombies. Will the cast manage to survive the hordes of zombies, or will they be consumed and turned into the monsters they fight against?
1. Chapter 1: It Begins

**It's been years since I actually wrote anything for a fanfiction, but I've returned from the shadowy depths of a realm ruled by writer's block. I fear that may happen again, but I'm really into this concept and just want to have fun with it so let's see how it goes.**

 **So this is going to be a total drama zombie apocalypse story. I know others have done this, some of which have done excellent jobs, but I have my own ideas and rendition I'd like to try. I think the idea is interesting and people can get behind it.**

 **There are a few things to note before you start reading. #1: This story takes place about a year after TDWT aired so only the season 1 contestants and the season 3 debutants will be featuring at first. Others from later seasons will show up later on in the story. #2: Many couples from the show are already a thing, as they were after TDWT. Many aren't in relationships, but that can change. As can the currently existing relationships. #3: Obviously a lot of people are going to die, so just prepare yourself for that.**

 **WARNING: This story may contain scenes of violence, cursing, sexual content and death.**

* * *

"Last season on Total Drama. I, Chris McLean, flew around the world, boasting about my excessive wealth and unforgettable TV personality!" The dazzling young host profusely proclaimed to the camera with a wink, "Additionally, I was forced to deal with seventeen teen freak shows and host a reality competition that in the end turned out to be a massive waste of money, time, and limbs from many of the contestants."

"I'll say," The stunningly attractive Spaniard, Alejandro, muttered, "I only recently got out of that robot suit you forced me into at the end of last season."

"Such a shame, I liked you better when you weren't able to talk to me." Heather taunted but Alejandro didn't seem thrown, "And Chris, the only reason _I'm_ here is because _you_ owe me money! I _won_ last season, remember? I want my million dollars and then I'll be done with these losers for good."

"Calm down, and don't interrupt me _ever_!" Chris said, jabbing Heather in the shoulder with his finger for emphasis. The host turned back to the camera and beamed his award-winning smile once again, "After Ezekiel robbed Heather of the win last season, our show was faced with numerous lawsuits and other assorted problems. Luckily, Chef threw all the court notices into a shredder and accidentally shredded them. Who would've thought?"

"You can't just do that!" Courtney, the camp's CIT, was outraged, "You're going to go to jail McLean. And I am not going to tolerate another season of disgusting food, life-threatening challenges and-"

"Moving on!" Chris silenced the girl, "So thanks to Chef's quick thinking, we were able to rope _all_ of our past contestants into coming back for an end-all be-all final season of Total Drama! And yes, I mean _all_ twenty five contestants we've seen on this show. Sadly that includes-"

"Chris!" A much older blonde woman who the gang knew to be Blaineley spoke up to the host, "I shouldn't have even been a contestant in the first place and you know it. Therefore it's a breech in my contract and I demand to be released from doing this ridiculous show."

"Yup, even Blaineley is here to stay for the season!" Chris grinned and before Blaineley could protest further, he walked further down a boat dock.

"For this grand, epic season we've decided to come back to where it all started: Camp Wawanakwa! Isn't the place just a beaut?" Chris stated and the camera zoomed out to show the rundown cabins from season 1, the outhouse confessional, Chef's horrific dining hall, and the sub-par campgrounds around the common area and elimination zone.

"Um Craig?" Lindsay, the dumb blonde, rose her hand as she spoke to the host, "Can we go back to Paris instead? This place is kind of a drag."

"I second that motion," LeShawna, the loudest of the bunch, proclaimed, "y'all are so lucky most of you got to go. I can't believe I get booted before getting to strut my stuff in the city of love!"

"It was magical!" Sierra the super fan said with a squeal as she wrapped her arms tightly around Cody, "My Codykins even took me away from the challenge just to have a _special_ date! That's when I knew Cody was seriously into me and it's been a fairytale ever since!"

"Probably because most of the things she talks about only happen in that peanut-sized brain of hers." Noah the know-it-all said disinterestedly as he dug in his rucksack for a book, "Can I please get eliminated already? I don't want to spend any more time than necessary around these Neanderthals."

"If we could all get back on topic please." Chris said, shooting a frown at Noah and Sierra, who both fell quiet for now. "Thank you. So because this is going to be our grand finale of a season, I've decided to split you guys up into 5 teams of 5 based on how much drama and impact you've had on the show. So now I'll divvy you all up and place you on your new teams."

"Team 1 will consist of: Duncan, Cody, Justin, Trent and Alejandro!" Chris tossed a banner over to Justin, "You are hereby christened Team Heartthrob!"

Cody grinned, immediately feeling the name was appropriate. Justin seemed to feel similar as he exclaimed, "I always knew I was the most beautiful competitor. And this year, I'll prove I'm the biggest heartthrob the contest has ever seen!"

"Um dude, that's not really something you should strive for." Trent told his fellow band mate.

"What a lame team," Duncan scoffed in annoyance, "I don't want to have anything to do with being called a 'player' or anything this season. I'm with Gwen and have been since last season. That's that."

"You can always go rant in the confessional if you want. I trust you remember where it is?" Chris asked smugly.

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **Duncan (arms crossed): Look, I know a lot of people were furious that I ended things with Courtney. And many call me a player for it too. But let me remind you all that I was** _ **not**_ **with Courtney when Gwen and I kissed. Got it?**

 **Cody (grinning): Of course I'm a heartthrob. I mean, surely Gwen will fall for me this season. She has a new love interest every season! (blinks at camera for a moment as he realizes what he said).**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

"Team 2 will consist of: Noah, Katie, Sadie, Ezekiel and DJ!" Chris said while throwing Ezekiel their team banner, "Given your performances in past seasons, we're naming you Team Disappointment!"

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **DJ (slightly offended): Disappointment? I've been in more episodes than half the contestants and Chris thinks I'm a disappointment? Well I can't have that, I'm here to make Momma proud after last season's animal curse debacle. I promise I've changed.**

 **Katie & Sadie: **

**Katie: Omg I can't believe Chris called us disappointing!**

 **Sadie: I know right? That was like, totally uncalled for! Even if we were only in one season!**

 **Katie: For real. Also do you know why Ezekiel is suddenly a human again? I thought he was some weird mutant after last season but he seems normal again.**

 **Sadie: Beats me, I just remember he was really sexist towards us in season one. So I think we'll vote for him first time we lose!**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

"Team 3 will consist of: Izzy, Sierra, Harold, Eva and Beth!" Chris said, giving Sierra their team banner, "Given your wacky personalities, we've named your team, Team Crazies!"

"What?" Beth asked in shock, "But I'm not crazy!"

"I beg to differ," Blaineley muttered from off to the side, "I saw you bag a guard from London in that comeback challenge in ten seconds flat. And you had quite the look in your eyes when you did it."

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **Beth: I'm not crazy, Chris just wants to torture me! Why do some people mistake the desire for romance as being "crazy" (she uses air quotes). Some people.**

 **Harold: Of course I'm not crazy, but I can see why the producers made this mistake. After attending Maniacal Steve's Maniac Camp to study up on a role I had in the upcoming school play, I learned how to let loose and act like...well like a crazy person. Gosh.**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

"Team 4 will consist of: Heather, Gwen, LeShawna, Blaineley and Courtney!" Chris announced, handing the banner to LeShawna. "You ladies will be henceforth Team Drama Queens!"

"What? I'm not a drama queen!" Courtney protested and almost every single competitor burst out laughing.

"You mean I actually got to put up with Heather _and_ Miss CIT Drama over there on the same team?" LeShawna asked, annoyed, and Chris nodded menacingly, "Man, I hate this show."

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **Gwen (sighs): I'm not surprised I've been put on the drama queen team. I never wanted to be in this position, but after last season with the whole Duncan and Courtney drama, I even became "The New Heather". I really just want to fix my relationship with Courtney and keep Duncan by my side this year.**

 **Blaineley: I can't believe Chris is making me do this competition. And of course I'm stuck on a team filled with the bitchiest contestants ever on this show. Ugh, maybe I'll have us lose on purpose to either get myself or them eliminated. Whatever works.**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

"And finally, team 5 consists of: Bridgette, Tyler, Lindsay, Geoff and Owen!" Chris handed Bridgette their team banner, "You five will be Team Dumb Luck!"

"Seriously?" Bridgette raised an eyebrow, "I've got to be one of the clumsiest, unluckiest players in the game. I always get unfairly eliminated and everything."

"Yeah but you're like totally awesome and lucky to have snagged Geoff!" Owen exclaimed happily and told her, "Geoff's a real winner."

Owen seemed to realize what he had said and how it might sound, so he flushed and said, "Oh um, I mean that Geoff's a great partier."

"Right on man!" Geoff gave him a high-five, "Let's get this party started!"

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **Tyler (smiling): I'm really happy that for the first time** _ **ever**_ **I get to be on a team with Lindsay! She's honestly everything I've ever wanted and she doesn't laugh at me when I have my various accidents. And the best part is, she knows my name again!**

 **Bridgette (also happy): Chris actually did me a favor putting me on this team. I love Owen, Tyler and Lindsay as friends, and of course I'm with my Geoff. Geoff and I have gotten** _ **really**_ **close in the months between seasons. I don't think I've ever been this happy in my life.**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

"Now that we've picked teams, I'll remind our lovely viewers of the rules of this show." Chris commented as the whole group entered the campground, where they realized there were actually three more cabins than there was in season one: obviously for the five teams twist. "Each of our teams will compete in challenges each week as they work towards the ultimate goal of winning one million dollars! Each week, there will be a winning team and a losing team. The winning team will enjoy luxurious rewards, while the losing team will be required to vote someone from their team off the island. And they can never come back. Ever!"

Chris was temporarily distracted by the snapping of a picture and he glared over at Sierra, who happily said, "Oh don't mind me, I just _always_ wanted to do that, hehe! My mother is going to love having upfront pictures of the best host ever!"

Chris seemed satisfied with the sucking up so he didn't confiscate the camera. He continued explaining the rules, though some had already drowned him out and were talking amongst themselves.

"Hey have any of you guys seen Chef yet?" Izzy asked with a bit of a glint in her eye.

"No, but something is making me afraid of why you're asking." Beth took a step away from the red-head in fear.

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **Izzy (grinning): Old Cheffy boy and I have some unfinished business. Since I was disqualified due to injury last season, I never got to chew him out for not letting me fly the TDWT plane after Paris. He lost that bet fair and square and he knows it. So I'm coming for you Chef!**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

 **~elsewhere on the island~**

Chef Hatchet was walking quietly through the dense woods of Wawanakwa Island. Years of experience had taught him how not to draw attention to himself. Place your foot here, dodge that branch there, and so on and so forth. It had served him well in his military years, and now he used these skills to help Chris set up the campers for various challenges.

"Stupid, pointless show," Chef grumbled to himself, "thank goodness this is the last season or I might just die."

At this current moment in time, Chef was expected to sneak around the woods and slowly start snatching the campers, with each taken contestant being a point deducted from their team while they performed other challenges. Chef thought this a rather juvenile and pointless task, but he didn't have much of a choice. Chris pretty much owned him; Chris _was_ the one who got Chef out of jail so he would take this role.

A sound caught Chef's attention and he came to a quick stop. It sounded as if someone with a lot less experience moving silently had just stepped on a branch off to the west of Chef's position. His eyes narrowed as he listened intently and heard more footsteps that were getting louder and louder. Uncertain of who or what was approaching him, Chef crouched down behind a large oak tree and waited. A few moments later, a shape came running past and Chef pounced, lunging towards the living organism and tackling it to the ground.

It was one of the interns, and he looked even worse than usual. His clothes were practically worthless as they had been torn and ripped all along the fabric, and his hair was a mess. Chef vaguely recalled that this intern usually wore glasses, but said spectacles were nowhere to be seen. The intern was also visibly sweating, the salty liquid gleaming off the man's pale white skin. Chef also noticed, after a moment of peering at the man, that the intern had a bite mark from what the cook assumed was a wild animal, located on his neck.

"Chef! Of thank God it's you!" The intern's face broke into an expression of relief, "We got to get out of here man!"

"What in God's name are you doing running around in the woods?" Chef said harshly as he and the intern both got back to their feet.

"Look I know you're not going to believe me, but there are _things_ on the island. Things that are trying to kill us all!" The intern sure sounded terrified. Chef rose an eyebrow.

"Make some sense damn it, what things? Boars? Bears?"

The intern shook his head, "No, they're like people. Only they feast on the blood of the humans they catch. I watched those monsters tear the other interns apart, but the worst part was after they were done feasting, some of the interns...came back."

"Came back?" Chef was baffled, "But that's impossible. You must be high or-"

Another sound caused the cook to stop talking. The intern paled with fright as the duo heard the sounds of _many_ footsteps heading their direction. The intern started tugging on Chef's arm, trying to lead him away from the oncoming horde. Chef braved a look past the tree and his heart rose up in his threat: horde was an understatement. Headed towards him was a mass contingent of what looked like people. But something in their movements made Chef think twice about calling them "humans". All of them were almost shambling about, very uncoordinated, and they all were caked with fresh blood. Several were missing limbs, eyes, ears, teeth, clothes, and even huge chunks of some of their stomachs had been physically ripped from their bodies. It was a sickening sight.

Finally Chef turned to the intern and said, "Alright, you were right. I don't have a clue what those things are, but we aren't hanging around to find out. We're going to my shack, loading up with the weapons I got there, and getting ourselves and the kids out of here."

The intern merely nodded in agreement, relieved that Chef was finally ready to flee. The two quickly scampered off into the woods, leaving the slow but massive group of monsters behind. The intern was saying a quick, unintelligible prayer to whatever deity might be listening as they ran. Chef didn't blame the man. The cook wasn't exactly religious himself, but after seeing _that_ , perhaps a little faith wasn't a bad idea.

* * *

 **~Back with the cast~**

"Behold, the mega obstacle course of death!" Chris shouted gleefully as he gestured with his hands at the mammoth set of challenges before him. The whole thing was gigantic, but if you looked closely it appeared to be falling apart almost everywhere. The very foundations of the construction were clearly preparing to cave in.

"Um Chris, I'd like to express some safety concerns about this challenge." Courtney exclaimed, "I.e., I am not putting myself through that when the whole thing might collapse on me!"

"I think Courtney's right," Gwen said, much to the shock of many, "I'm not really willing to risk injury because of that thing."

Duncan looked perplexed at the fact that his girlfriend seemed to be trying to get along with Courtney; his teammate Trent looked equally intrigued. However, no one had time to say anything as a certain irritated host stated, "It's called contracts people! You've performed more dangerous challenges before anyway, what's the big deal?"

"I kind of agree with the girls," Owen said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "ever since the plane fell on top of me and partially crushed me, I've been a lot less inclined to put myself in danger. You never know when you're going to go, right?"

"Relax Big O, I'm sure the obstacle course will be fine!" Izzy cackled as the second half of the entire course fell apart into a giant heap of rubble and broken parts, "Ha-ha, fun!"

* * *

 **Confessional:**

 **Owen: After Izzy's brain was fixed on the aftermath show, I've been waiting to make my move to get her back. A lot of people forget we technically did break up, I just don't know how I'm going to ask her. But don't worry, Owen and Izzy will be together again!**

 **Courtney (frowning): Did you notice that? Gwen agreeing with me? Maybe she's trying to make amends? Well whatever, I'll never trust her again after what she did. She and Duncan can rot for all I care.**

 **~end confessional~**

* * *

"We'll have the obstacle course back up and running in no time." Chris reassured the contestants, though no one seemed interested, "Interns!"

After waiting a few moments, absolutely no one came to heed Chris' call. Chris frowned: the interns _always_ came running when he called. They knew the consequences of disobeying. He attempted one more time, "Interns! Interns get over here and repair the course immediately!"

Again, not a single person came at Chris' request. Geoff laughed a bit and said to Chris, "Dude, I think they want a raise or something."

"Considering how little he paid us when we hosted the aftermath show, I can see why." Bridgette whispered to Geoff, and the party boy grinned at her.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you and your jokes?" Geoff asked her, wrapping his arms protectively around her.

"Not enough times." Bridgette giggled and gave him a quick kiss for his efforts.

"Ew, get a room please." Heather rolled her eyes at the display of love and affection, "This show is called Total Drama, not Total PDA."

"Relax Heather, we aren't even airing right now while Chris tries to find out what's going on." Trent said, looking relatively relaxed.

"Yeah, but maybe because the camera man is gone, eh?" Ezekiel pointed over to where the camera was originally positioned. Everyone discovered he was right: even the camera man seemed to have completely disappeared.

"Worker's strike maybe?" Cody joked.

"This place doesn't even have a makeup department and that alone is enough to protest about." Blaineley replied, "But something seems...off to me."

"Cake?" Owen offered Blaineley a piece of cake he'd apparently smuggled onto the island earlier that day, "It's vanilla with lemon. Your favorite."

"This is so strange." Chris murmured to himself as he surveyed the area and none of the crew were anywhere in sight. He had hundreds of staff and employees working on this show; there was no way they all just happened to leave all of a sudden. Chris pulled out his walkie-talkie and said, "Chef? Chef are you there?"

There was no response. And by now, the reality show host was starting to get seriously scared. What the hell was going on?

* * *

 **~Chef's shack~**

"Wow Chef, I didn't know you had all this stuff!" The intern, who Chef had learned was named Russell, stood in awe as he took in the array within Chef's wood shack. Lining the wall over the fireplace were two hunting rifles, and in a locked closet that Chef quickly opened with his key, the intern saw two handguns and two shotguns along with plenty of ammunition for each.

"You never know when you need to defend yourself." Chef said, while silently thinking about all those times he'd envisioned using these guns to flee the island from Chris' reign of terror. "Stuff the ammo into those duffel bags over there. I'll grab the guns and then we'll haul ass back to the main camp and get everybody else."

Russell appeared compliant with the plan, but after shoving some of the ammo into the bags Chef indicated, he started coughing fervently. At first, neither thought it meant much, but soon Russell was rolling around on the wooden floor and coughing up blood. Chef knelt down next to him and put his hand to the man's forehead: burning hot.

"The bite," Chef's eyes widened as he realized, "Russell, didn't you say the others got bitten and that turned them into those...things?"

Russell had tears going down his face at this point and he nodded, "I hoped maybe it wouldn't affect me, but I can f-feel something happening in my b-b-body. Ah!"

Russell shouted as an inner body experience brought him pain and he started foaming at the mouth. As he sobbed and choked, he locked eyes with Chef Hatchet. Chef could see the pleading in the man's gaze. His expression hardened as he hold up one of the hand guns to Russell's head.

"I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I saw what those things are. I won't let you be one of them." Chef explained and Russell seemed to be nodding amidst the unbearable pain he was experiencing. "I'm sorry."

There was a resounding bang from the shack in the woods. Chef didn't look back at Russell's body, or the blood soaked floor of what had been his home for filming season. He grabbed the duffel bags and all of the guns, tossing most of them into the bags of ammo, and hoisting it over his shoulder. He opened the door to his shack and stepped outside. The sun was starting to go down and Chef saw a few of those creatures come stumbling out from the woods and into the clearing of his hut. Chef grimaced as he was forced to look upon those horrific monsters, but he had no time to sit and watch. Without another thought, the burly cook took off in the opposite direction as the creatures and towards the camp.

"I've got to warn them."

* * *

 **~Back with the cast~**

Chris McLean had been pacing for nearly twenty minutes before he finally decided to take the competitors back to the main campground. He canceled the challenge until further notice, an announcement that relieved most of the teens.

"Another day where I don't have to deal with Chris' nagging, murderous obstacle courses, or obnoxiously arrogant competitors. Hip-hip hurray." Noah said incredibly unenthusiastically as he continued reading his book.

"Isn't anyone worried about Chef and the missing interns?" Beth couldn't help but ask what had been on her mind for the last hour.

"Of course not," Heather scoffed, "this is probably all part of some lame challenge Chris thought up. Don't think too much of it."

"Girl quit pretending like you know everything, I think this is serious." LeShawna said and Heather frowned at her, "I don't think I've ever seen Chris look so worried, and that boy is some kind of psycho most of the time."

"Of course, LeShawna is correct." Alejandro agreed, "Someone of such wit and intelligence ought not be discounted, Heather."

"Oh no, no, no, no. Not this time sugar." LeShawna glared at Alejandro, "Don't think you can pull the same flirty crap on me this time around. Be grateful you aren't on my team or I'd rip you to shreds and send you packing immediately."

Alejandro didn't seem thrilled, but Justin took this as an opportunity to show up Alejandro. He'd harbored a deep resentment for him since he replaced him for the third season of the show and he wanted his revenge.

"My fair LeShawna, _I_ think you're the most-" Justin began but was immediately cut off by Chris coming over to rant.

"It's been hours! There are no crew members in sight and Chef isn't answering the walkie-talkie! Even worse, I'm stuck sitting around with all of you until I find out what's going on!"

"Forgive us if we don't take pity on your current 'plight'." Eva snorted derisively at the host and went back to doing pushups.

"We aren't doing the challenge today, don't you think that's kind of unnecessary?" DJ asked his teammate while she did her exercise.

"Nope, it never is. I find working out to be the perfect way to let off some steam. And apparently I need to do it a lot cause some seem to believe I have anger issues." Eva said as if this concept were ridiculous.

The sun had almost completely set at this point and Chris' nervousness was only getting worse. "Chef has _never_ done this before. Something must've happened..."

"Don't be so worried about your boyfriend." Noah mocked with a bit of a smirk, "I'm sure Chef will surprise you with a bouquet of flowers and sweep you off your feet later tonight."

"Maybe we should start thinking about going to our cabins?" Courtney suggested, looking a little concerned, "All of us standing around waiting isn't really accomplishing anything."

"She just doesn't want to admit she's afraid of the dark." Duncan whispered to Geoff and Courtney glared at the pair of them.

"She's right," Chris said, ignoring Noah's comment, "everyone go back to your team cabins and get some sleep. I'll alert you what the situation is when I know more."

Without too much delay, the campers each proceeded to their respective team cabins. Each of the cabins had a boys side and girls side that the group found acceptable for accommodations. Meanwhile, Chris headed over to the mess hall where he decided to wait for Chef. Surely his oldest friend would return and tell him what on Earth was going on. The host drummed his fingers nervously on the table, hoping for answers. Nobody kept Chris McLean in the dark.

After hours of waiting, Chris actually jumped in surprise when Chef Hatchet came barreling into the mess hall. The strong cook slammed the door shut behind him, and when Chris made a move to speak, the cook silenced him.

"We got a serious problem." Chef breathed out quietly, "The island is under attack."

"Attack?" Chris' eyes widened, "Thieves? Terrorists?"

Chef shook his head and said one word that terrified Chris more than anything he thought possible, "Undead."

* * *

At Team Unlucky's cabin, the trio of guys had mixed interest in the current proceedings. Noah seemed to be ignoring his teammates completely as he was perfectly content to read his beloved novel. DJ seemed worried if anything: he had never done well under uncertain circumstances. He just wish someone would explain what was happening so that another psycho-killer with a hook incident didn't happen again. Ezekiel seemed much more interested in the situation, and he was constantly looking out the cabin door window to see if Chef came back.

"Would you close that door already?" Noah finally snapped at the prairie boy, "It's cold out and the wind keeps blowing the pages of my book around."

"Alright, alright." Ezekiel surrendered and closed the cabin door, "Just thought I'd check on the girls, eh."

"Don't forget to watch what you say around them." DJ kindly reminded him, "Remember why you got kicked out last time?"

Ezekiel nodded, "I do, and that's not going to happen again. I just wanted to make sure they were alright with all that's happening, eh."

* * *

"Oh my gosh Katie, this is so scary." Sadie said to her only bunk buddy, which happened to be her best friend.

"I know, do you think Chef ever came back?" Katie asked.

Sadie shrugged, "I don't know, but I'm starting to think summer camp was a bad idea. Maybe we should have stayed home."

"That's quitter talk." Katie clicked her tongue, "We're going to be fine Sadie, I'm sure of it. Heather was probably right about this just being some scary challenge."

There was a knock from outside their cabin door and the girls both jumped. Sadie stuttered out, "W-what do you m-make of t-that then Katie?"

"It's probably just Chris trying to mess with us. Or maybe it's one of the guys from our team." Katie pondered as the knocking continued, "If it is, I hope it's DJ. He's _so_ hot!"

"Oh my gosh you are so right!" Sadie exclaimed as she made her way over to the door, "Coming!"

Sadie opened the cabin door and yelped in surprise. It most certainly was not DJ, Ezekiel or Noah. It was a girl, dressed as an intern, only she looked rather odd. She had this glossy look in her eye and she was reaching for Sadie with gnarled, blackened arms.

"Sorry, can I help, ah!" Sadie screamed as the girl suddenly lunged for her and bit down into her neck. Sadie shrieked as the intern continued taking portions of flesh from her body and shoving it into her mouth.

"Katie!" Sadie screeched as bits of her cheek were now being torn off and her best female friend for life looked on in horror and threw up.

Katie just watched in shock as the monster continued making a meal of Sadie and soon Sadie stopped screaming. She stopped making any sound at all. And as Katie unconsciously cried in fear, she saw one more intern outside with a similar look to the first one. And the intern turned towards her.

* * *

 **So there you have it, the first chapter and first death of many to come. I'll keep a running list for those alive and those dead at the end of each chapter for your convenience. Don't forget to drop me a review, favorite or follow. I promise I don't bite.**

 **DEAD: Sadie**

 **ALIVE: Owen, Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Izzy, DJ, Lindsay, Bridgette, Trent, Eva, Harold, Courtney, Beth, Cody, Tyler, Katie, Justin, Noah, Ezekiel, Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley, Chris, Chef**


	2. Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening

**Wow, talk about sudden motivation to write! In the span of 16 hours I've already completed 2 chapters and I just started on chapter 3.**

 **By the way, there's a poll in my profile that you can vote on for what characters you want to survive the story. You can choose up to 5 and I may take this into consideration.**

 **Also don't forget to review or PM me so I get feedback and your take on the story. I remember in my old days as a fanfiction writer that the reason I always stopped writing was from a lack of feedback. So if you want to keep this story going, you know what to do!**

 **WARNING: This story will contain scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character death.**

* * *

Katie shrieked at the top of her lungs as the second zombified intern started shambling towards her from outside. Sadie was still being eaten by the first one in the doorway of the cabin, meaning Katie wouldn't be able to close the door. She screamed again as the second intern stepped over its compatriot eating Sadie.

Katie stood completely petrified with fear; she could feel herself being mentally paralyzed with terror and she knew she wasn't going to be able to move.

"Hey!" Katie closed her eyes, but she heard a voice from outside her side of the cabin, "Oi intern! Pick on someone your own size, eh?"

The intern, amazingly enough, seemed distracted by Ezekiel from outside. It paused momentarily, until a rock came whizzing into its head and it growled. The intern turned back to the cool outdoors and shuffled its way past Sadie once again.

"Katie!" She heard DJ's voice from outside, "Now's your chance. Come on!"

She thanked her lucky stars that she found herself able to move her legs again. Seeming to snap out of her stupor, Katie made a running leap over the creature chewing on Sadie's legs. Katie landed well enough and was back on her feet in no time. She felt DJ helping her up and she vaguely heard Ezekiel shouting something at the other intern who had been about to attack her.

"It's okay, I've got you." DJ comforted her, though he could feel her trembling against him.

"W-what's happening?" Katie wailed, "Sadie...oh Sadie..."

Noah came running out from the guy's side of the cabin with a panicked look. He saw Katie and DJ and shouted, "We need to move, now! There's more!"

Sure enough, coming from where Noah just fled from, another four undead interns were moving towards the trio.

"What about Zeke?" DJ asked worriedly as he glanced over to the woods where Ezekiel seemed to be leading the intern.

"No time, let's go to the mess hall. I see a light on in there!" Noah used strength he didn't think he'd have under normal circumstances to get DJ and Katie moving with him towards the mess hall.

* * *

"Listen up fruit cakes," Chef Hatchet's voice came over the still-functional camp intercom, "all of y'all need to come to the mess hall right now. This is not a joke, this is literally life and death. So get your sorry butts in here if you want to survive!"

"Seriously?" Cody sat up quickly in his bed, "Alright then, gentlemen shall we?"

"Perhaps not." Alejandro said cautiously as he gazed outside and heard screams and moans of something that did not sound human, "It appears to be chaos outside."

As Alejandro spoke, Owen happened to be running by, but unfortunately the large oaf tripped and fell onto his face. It didn't take long for Alejandro to see what it was that Owen was running from as one of the infected interns fell on top of the winner of TDI and sank its teeth into his neck. Alejandro closed the door, not wishing to watch the act of cannibalism before him: this certainly was no joke.

"Oh my gosh, Omar!" Lindsay screamed as she watched Owen go down, "Tyler! We have to do something!"

"I don't think we can Linds," Tyler said sadly as he turned her away from the horrific sight of Owen's death, "this way! Geoff and Bridgette are just ahead of us and we're nearly to the mess hall!"

Only moments later, Tyler and Lindsay joined the others who had made it into the mess hall: Geoff, Bridgette, Noah, DJ, Katie, Harold, Beth, Izzy, Chris and Chef. Not even half of them.

"No one else has made it yet?" Tyler asked, surprised.

Chef shook his head, hefting his shotgun and standing next to the entrance, "No, but we'll hold here until everyone makes it. I got five other guns that Chris will pass around and we're going to defend this place or die trying. Got it?"

"Got it." Harold saluted and requested a gun from Chris, "I went to Sharpshooting Steve's Sharpshooter camp, I can totally handle one of the rifles."

Chris didn't have time or energy to question him as he handed Harold one of the rifles. He quickly gave the other one to Izzy, and then the second shotgun to DJ. He kept one of the handguns for himself and gave the last one to Geoff and the six with guns moved to man the defenses of the mess hall.

* * *

The cabin door for team drama queens finally caved in and one of the undead scampered inside. The five girls all started shouting, but they were saved when Eva hit the creature in the back of the head with what looked like one of her heavier weights from her weightlifting set.

"Are you going to sit here and whine or try and live?" Eva snarled at the five of them and beckoned for them to go outside, "Let's get going."

"Morbid." Gwen commented as she checked out the dead body.

"This is no time for that sugar." LeShawna said as she helped drag Gwen out of their cabin and into the mania that was the outside. Two of the cabins were somehow on fire, one of them appearing to be Team Heartthrob's, and inside that cabin the guys were still in there. There were also undead everywhere, attacking anyone they could find. And several of them turned towards the girls.

"The guys need our help!" Courtney shouted, still looking at the guys trapped in the burning cabin.

"I think we have more pressing matters to worry about!" Heather shouted back, pointing at the group about to encircle them.

"Run for the mess hall, I've got this." Eva snarled at them. They each hesitated for just a moment, but after a sort of barking command from the female jock, they all got moving.

Gwen, LeShawna, Heather, Courtney and Blaineley managed to make it to the mess hall. Chef let each of them pass, and he commanded Bridgette to check each of them for bite marks. Bridgette still had no idea what was happening, but she was not about to question Chef's orders. She searched Courtney first and was relieved to find no bites. Her results were the same for all five of the girls.

"Eva's still out there and so are the guys from Team Heartthrob." Courtney choked out to Bridgette and the surfer could see the pain and anguish in the CIT's eyes, "Duncan..."

"I know." Bridgette whispered back, "I'm sure he'll be fine."

* * *

"Open the damn door!" Duncan yelled at Alejandro, "The cabin is on fire!"

"Those _things_ are standing right outside!" Alejandro yelled right back, "And as for the fire, _I_ was not the one who decided to bring a lighter and then not watch what I did with it!"

"Guys, this isn't the time." Trent said, panicked, though he did seem angry with Duncan as the fire was his fault.

"I can't die," Justin was murmuring to himself as he sat on his bunk bed, "I'm too pretty to die. Someone do something!"

"Perhaps if you stopped crying like a little bitch, we could try!" Duncan shouted, enraged. He stormed up to Alejandro and grabbed the door, "I'm opening it!"

"Duncan wait!" Cody shouted but it was too late. Duncan grabbed the door and flung it open, tripping back and taking Alejandro down with him. The two undead interns who were trying to get in now stepped in, reaching for their next meal in the form of a delinquent and hot Spaniard.

"Get your hands away from my Cody!" They heard a familiar shriek and the two interns both collapsed, revealing Sierra to be standing there with what looked like Chef's katana.

"Cody!" Sierra looked relieved as she tackled him in a bear hug, making it very difficult to breathe.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Trent asked Sierra while Alejandro and Duncan got to their feet.

"Something tells me the answer will only frighten us more." Cody choked out and Sierra hoisted him onto her shoulders.

"To the mess hall!" Sierra exclaimed and she charged out into the night with Cody.

"You heard the nut case." Duncan shrugged and ran out after Sierra, with Trent right behind him.

"Amigo, it is time to go." Alejandro said to Justin, the only other person still in the cabin, "Allow me to be of assistance."

Justin simply glared at Alejandro, his own sworn enemy, but reluctantly took his hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. The two models rushed outside and barely had time to take in the dreadful sight of undead monsters, before a few of them turned towards them.

It was then that Justin panicked. He was still holding onto Alejandro when he started backing up until he tripped over himself. Alejandro fell with him, but the Spaniard was desperately trying to pick himself up.

"Justin!" Alejandro was shouting at him, but the male model was petrified and wouldn't let go of Alejandro's hand.

"I'm going to die," Justin whimpered and looked at Alejandro with a boiling hatred, "and so are you."

A gunshot went off and Alejandro lurched back in shock as Justin collapsed with a new hole in the side of his head. Alejandro saw Chef Hatchet reloading his shotgun and urging him to hurry. Alejandro needed no second invitation; he quickly dodged the other infected and reached the mess hall as Justin's dead body was devoured.

Alejandro was somewhat surprised to feel himself being wrapped into a hug. He looked down to see Heather had fiercely hugged him as tears cascaded down her face. She looked up into his eyes and said, "You're not allowed to die on me. Don't do that to me."

Alejandro was quite shocked: he hadn't even really spoken to Heather since she betrayed him in the finale last season and broke his heart. But here she was, a blubbering mess at just the mere thought of him dying. He returned the hug and whispered, "I won't mi amor, I promise."

Chef closed the doors to the mess hall and Chris threw a block of wood over it as a lock. Only seconds later, they heard the sound of bodies thudding into the door. The door held; for now.

"You actually shot him." Chef heard Bridgette shakily say, "You just...killed Justin."

"Chef saved my life," Alejandro told the surfer, "Justin had already given up, but I had no such interest in dying."

"It's true," Trent reassured Bridgette, "Justin was utterly terrified back at our cabin. But we were all going to die if not for Sierra, so thanks for saving our lives."

"Oh it was nothing really, anything for my Codykins." Sierra giggled as she hugged Cody. No one else seemed anywhere near as happy.

"Those _monsters_ tore Sadie apart." Katie wept, "Right in front of me! They're nasty, disgusting-"

"We left Eva out there to die." Gwen looked even paler than usual, "She saved all of us and now she's..."

"This is no time for sadness people, get it together!" Blaineley hissed, surprisingly full of anger, "What? This is survival of the fittest and we aren't going to survive if you're all crying instead of doing anything useful."

"Oh shove it Blaineley," LeShawna growled at her, "people are _dying_ and you have the nerve-"

"That's enough all of you!" Chef barked and immediately everyone in the dining hall fell quiet, now only hearing the thuds from outside. "Now listen up maggots, we got ourselves a serious problem on our hands. Earlier I encountered an intern who wasn't like...like these shitheads outside. He was bitten, but I didn't know what that meant at the time. Turns out he was bitten by one of those fuckers, and once you're bit you turn."

"You mean everyone we left outside is going to become one of those..." Courtney trailed off, not really sure what to even call them.

Chef nodded and Geoff said, "Dude, that's like seriously awful. What are we going to do? We're kind of trapped in here."

"First we're going to get everybody a weapon for now," Chef said as he went into his own personal backroom to grab a bunch of knives to distribute, "then we're going to get to somewhere safe we can hole up and figure out what's going on."

"We can go to my mansion on the island." Chris piped up, "It's plenty big enough for all of us, plus there's some more guns and other supplies there in case we need to stay for a while."

"Don't forget the televisions," Sierra reminded him, as she knew the complete details of the host's home, "we can watch the news and see if this is just a here problem or an everywhere problem."

By now Chef had handed every single person a kitchen knife that most understood wouldn't be a lot of use. Those who had been given guns earlier, Harold, Izzy, Geoff, DJ, Chris and Chef kept a hold of their weapons and each took a knife just in case. Chef seemed perfectly content to let Sierra continue to wield his katana, which she revealed she stole from him during TDWT and smuggled it into her suitcase for this season.

"So, um, what exactly do I with this?" Lindsay seemed very confused as she held her knife from the blade end instead of the handle.

"Is it even safe giving her a weapon?" Chris whispered to Chef, but the cook just shrugged.

"Listen blondie, just stay close to your boyfriend and try not to die." Chef told her and Lindsay seemed happy enough with that.

"Hold on," Beth said nervously, "Chef, are you saying we're going _back_ out there? Right now?"

Chef nodded, "Correct farm girl, we got to move now before more of them show up and they break the door down."

"We should still have like a distraction or something." Duncan pointed out, "Otherwise they might just get in anyway and rip us apart."

"Distraction huh? Izzy's your girl!" Izzy spoke in third-person, "I can climb onto the roof of this place and start sniping. It'll be just like that time my little brother ran away from home and I had to shoot a whole bunch of-"

"That might kill some of them, but it's not going to make it any easier for us to really escape." Cody interrupted her, "Maybe if you jumped down from the roof and lured them away?"

Izzy's grin only broadened, "Izzy likes the plan! How does Izzy get to Chris' fancy mansion?"

"Sorry only sane people are allowed-" Chris began but Chef put a hand over his mouth.

"It's far north on the island. Just travel as far in that direction as you can and we'll put a signal out for you. Alright crazy girl?" Chef asked and Izzy nodded.

"Izzy can do it!" Izzy hollered as she moved over to the chimney and started shimmying up it.

"We're putting our lives in the hands of that lunatic?" Blaineley asked with disgust, "We're doomed then. Also Chef, I'd like to point out that I'm one of the only adults here and ergo I deserve one of the guns."

"Do you know how to shoot a gun? Have you ever even held one?" Harold inquired and Blaineley flushed.

"Well, uh, um of course! Of course I have!" Blaineley lied, but no one bought it, "Oh come on, it's not like party boy or DJ has ever used one before either."

"I trust both of them more than I trust a snake like you." LeShawna jabbed Blaineley in the side and the ex co-host glared daggers at her.

"When we hear Izzy start shooting, we'll wait about one minute before we start running." Chef ordered, dropping the volume of his voice considerably, "If anyone starts fighting during this escape attempt, they will regret it."

The cook glared pointedly at LeShawna and Blaineley, who both fell silent for the time being. Now they simply had to wait for Izzy to give the signal. Tick tock tick tock.

* * *

Izzy shimmied all the way up the chimney and jumped out onto the roof. She stretched for a quick moment before she took her rifle and used the scope to look down into the throng of the undead. She was somewhat saddened when she saw that Owen and Eva had joined the ranks of the undead army. She had never really gotten the chance to patch things up with Owen, and she heard the others telling her how Eva sacrificed herself for them. Izzy didn't even think as she pointed her rifle at Owen's head and pulled the trigger. The lovable oaf fell to the ground as Izzy reloaded and did the same for Eva.

"May your souls rest in peace." Izzy whispered to herself as she picked up her rifle and leapt off the roof of the building and rolled into a crouch down on the ground.

She saw quite a few of those monsters pounding on the door to the mess hall, which was slowly starting to break under the combined weight of the undead. A few had turned their heads toward Izzy, and the maniacal red head pointed her gun at the ones by the door.

"I'm over here my lovelies!" Izzy cackled as she blasted two of them to bits with just one bullet, "Ha-ha, bull's-eye!"

She fired a few more shots into the cluster of undead before she needed to reload again. At this point, all the ones by the door were coming towards her, along with the stragglers who were spread around the campground.

"That's right my Frankensteins, follow the Izzy train!" Izzy shouted gleefully at them as she made a mad dash for the woods. And she certainly had amassed quite the following for her little "train". Oh my Izzy.

* * *

Trent nodded at Chef after having stared at his watch, "It's been a full minute and the shots are sounding more and more distant."

"That and the pounding on the door has totally stopped." Geoff added and Chef nodded.

"We owe you one crazy girl." Chef muttered a quick thank you to Izzy before he gave Geoff the go ahead to open the door.

Geoff opened the door and prepared himself with the handgun, just in case he had to shoot something. But all was clear outside the mess hall, to the great relief of the cowboy.

"Like dudes, it's totally clear. We can make it out!" Geoff said happily, but Noah put a finger to his lips.

"That is good news, but don't be too loud. It appears our little experiment with Izzy had a few other useful results, including that those creatures seem sensitive to sound and smell. They chased after her only after she started shooting." Noah pointed out.

"Bookworm is correct, we need to be cautious and perceptive." Chef told the group as he stepped out into the chilly Canadian night, "Now let's get to Chris' mansion!"

* * *

 **And now the characters start to drop like flies, mwhahahaha! As I said in the previous chapter, I will keep a running list of who is alive and who is dead for your convenience. Hope you enjoy the story!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva**

 **ALIVE: Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Izzy, DJ, Lindsay, Bridgette, Trent, Harold, Courtney, Beth, Cody, Tyler, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley, Chris, Chef**

 **UNKNOWN: Ezekiel**


	3. Chapter 3: Old Habits Die Hard

**Three chapters in three days. I'm shocked with myself but let's not waste our time questioning it and get to the story. Don't forget to vote in the poll on my profile for who you want to survive!**

 **WARNING: This story will contain scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character death.**

* * *

Chef Hatchet lead the group of twenty one into the woods headed north from the campground to where Chris McLean's mansion should be. He knew it would take them a few hours to get there on foot, but at least it was looking promising that they were going to make it. He didn't have a clue what they were going to do after that, but he had to at least pretend like he was keeping his shit together. After the shock of watching that intern die and shooting Justin in the head, Chef was just lucky not to be screaming uncontrollably from the unfairness of it all. But he'd been through a lot in his long life, some of it worse than this mess. Well at least, so far.

"Too bad we don't have the golf carts and ATVs." Chris was complaining next to him, "How do these campers even do challenges in the woods on foot?"

"You're going to have to toughen up if you expect to survive this thing, man." Chef told him and that was the end of their conversation.

A bit further back, some of the others were communicating in hushed whispers so as not to draw any attention from any lingering undead.

"Do you think Izzy is going to be alright?" Bridgette whispered to Courtney, "I mean, that was really brave of her to run off so we could escape."

"I hope so, I heard distant gunshots until recently so let's pray she's hiding somewhere or something." Courtney replied, but her attention was on the delinquent walking just a bit in front of her. He was walking along with Geoff, and Bridgette seemed to notice Courtney staring at Duncan.

Bridgette hid a smile but said, "Courtney, do you still like Duncan?"

"What?" Courtney exclaimed, much louder than before, and Heather shushed her from up ahead. Courtney lowered her voice again to say, "No of course I don't like that disgusting, barbaric-"

"Courtney, it's okay to like him you know." Bridgette reassured her, "I won't say anything to anyone, but I think you should let him know. I love Gwen, but that shouldn't stop you from at least telling Duncan how you feel. Considering that we just watched several of our friends die today, you might not get another chance."

"I don't know Bridgette," Courtney sighed, still not whispering particularly quietly, "I'm conflicted about the whole thing. I like him, a little bit, but I know he chose Gwen over me. And I'm not going to step on Gwen's toes like that, that would make me a hypocrite."

"I don't care what you two are talking about." Heather told them as she purposely fell back and waited for them, "But perhaps you could learn how to shut up so we don't draw those nasty freaks towards us."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with Heather, but you ought to keep it down a bit." LeShawna said from Heather's other side.

Just ahead of those girls, Tyler was holding hands with Lindsay and he seemed to be in a better mood than most. Lindsay sensed this and she said, "Tyler, why are you in such a good mood?"

"Just cause even though all this awful stuff is happening, I still have you by my side." Tyler smiled and gave her a peck on the lips.

Lindsay giggled a bit and said, "Oh Tyler, you'll always have me by your side. Forever and ever."

"Everyone stop!" Chef called for a halt and the entire group ceased movement. Chef peered around, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness so he could at least make out some shapes of trees or possibly more useful markers to use to figure out where they were.

"Chef, don't you think it's eerily quiet?" Chris sounded very spooked and Chef did notice it when the reality host mentioned it. There wasn't a sound to be heard in the pitch black of Camp Wawanakwa.

And that's when the zombies attacked. One zombie who looked like just a normal civilian from the mainland, jumped out towards Chris. The host screamed in a panic and the handgun slipped from his grasp, sliding behind him. Chris closed his eyes, expecting for his life to come to an end, but he heard the sound of a shotgun go off. He opened his eye and saw Chef had saved him, but more creatures were coming out of the woods.

"Run!" Chris screamed, "The mansion should be directly north of here. Every man for themselves!"

"Some protector." Beth cried out in fear and disappointment as Chris took off, though she followed close behind him.

Many others followed, but unfortunately their large group caused a division in the ranks as some of the zombies spilled out into the path and separated the group. Courtney, Blaineley, LeShawna, Bridgette, Lindsay, Tyler and Heather didn't make it before they got cut off. Cody was the last to have made it, but only because Sierra grabbed him at the last second, mere moments before an undead reached for the spot Cody was in before.

"Someone do something!" Heather snapped at those around her as she slowly backed up.

"Courtney, you were a CIT. Ideas?" Bridgette asked as she also backed away.

"I've got just one: run!" Courtney shouted and with that, the girls and Tyler bolted back the way they came. Blaineley seemed to hesitate for a moment and she reached for something on the ground. She quickly pocketed it and ran after the others.

Tyler and Lindsay were lagging in the back, as they were still holding hands. Only Blaineley was behind them, though that didn't last long as she passed them and hollered, "Move it lovebirds!"

"Oh my gosh, that Bertha woman is so rude-" Lindsay started but she screamed when she felt cold, clammy hands grab her leg from behind, causing her to trip and hit her head on the ground, hard.

"Lindsay!" Tyler had never sounded so terrified as he was forced to release his grip on Lindsay temporarily so he wouldn't fall as well. Unfortunately, he managed to fall anyway given his clumsiness, and he face planted into a tree.

"Ow," Lindsay rubbed her head, "that was like, so totally uncalled-"

"Lindsay look out!" Tyler shouted in warning but it was too late. The zombies had easily caught her while she took time trying to get up and before she could stop them, the undead took a chunk out of her neck. The foxiest competitor in total drama yelped in surprise and pain as the other creatures swarmed her and soon had her surrounded.

"Lindsay!" Tyler couldn't stop crying and screaming her name, and he wouldn't have even moved if it weren't for LeShawna, who came back to help.

"She's gone sugar," LeShawna said sadly as she tried to pull an unrelenting Tyler along, "I'm sorry."

* * *

Chris McLean was the first one to reach his own mansion, and he did it without any further scares with the undead. Beth quickly joined him and the host wasn't feeling all that safe with only her around. She was next to useless as far as he was concerned.

"Beth," Chris instructed the farm girl, "do a quick check around the perimeter of the house and make sure none of those things are trying to get in."

"What are you going to do?" Beth asked suspiciously.

"I'll make sure we can all get inside." Chris lied and Beth shrugged, deciding to do as told.

While Beth was searching a few others arrived to find Chris alone at the house. Among the new arrivals were Gwen, Trent, Noah and Chef. They were all panting, but Chef said to Chris, "Why are you just standing outside pretty boy, open the door."

"Wasn't Beth ahead of us?" Trent asked and Chris decided not to answer.

Luckily for him, Beth actually came back only a few moments later to confirm, "There's no sign of any of those monsters around the house. Can we go in now?"

"Of course," Chris laughed nervously as everyone realized he'd purposely sent Beth alone to investigate, "I'll unlock it."

Chris inserted his personal keys into the lock and with a click, the door swung open at his touch. The group rushed quickly inside and closed the curtains at the windows before turning on some of the lights so they could see. For those who had never been in Chris' manor, their jaws dropped at the sights. The building was tremendously vast, with rooms all over the place. The walls were lined with intricate and vividly detailed paintings, mostly of Chris. Though many were surprised to see small pictures of Owen, Duncan and Heather off in one small section of the house.

Several raised an eyebrow at that and Chris explained, "They were the winners of my show. I thought I'd at least keep them as a memo in my picture collection. I have one of everyone, they're just mostly in a different room."

"Wow Chris, that's actually somewhat...thoughtful of you." Beth said and patted the host on the back. Chris looked uncomfortable at the perception that he was soft, so he stalked away towards the stairs to check on various things in the house.

"Goth girl," Chef was ordering people around, "you're in charge of watching the door. If you see any of our people, let them in. If you see any of those things walking around, close the door quietly and slide the lock into place."

"What are you going to do?" Gwen asked the man who had become the sort of de facto leader.

"I'm going to defend some of Chris' oversized windows." Chef told her and then he turned to Noah, Trent and Beth, "You three: go find whatever weapons Chris keeps in this house. I imagine he's doing that too right now, but do what you can to help. Alright everybody, let's move!"

* * *

Heather, Courtney and Bridgette had finally stopped running and were now catching their breath in a small clearing. Bridgette was vomiting and the other two were looking rather green themselves.

"Poor Lindsay..." Courtney whispered quietly and thoughts flashed through her mind of all the times she was rude to the dumb blonde.

Bridgette stopped hurling and she stood up, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. She looked to be on the verge of tears, but she said, "We need to keep moving. Those things might be on us any second."

"She's right," Courtney agreed and turned to see Heather was currently shaking, "Heather? We need to go."

Heather seemed to get herself under control for the time being and she merely nodded. Courtney lead the way further into the woods, but after traveling for a few minutes she changed course. Courtney led the girls east and told them to pick up the pace.

"What are you doing?" Heather hissed at her, "Courtney, do you even have a clue where you're going?"

"Relax Heather, I picked up tracking skills as a CIT. I know precisely where we are." Courtney told her matter-of-factly and Heather didn't believe her at all.

"Don't bother arguing," Bridgette warned Heather before she could start, "it's not like you have a better plan. We'll follow Courtney and eventually we'll make it back to the others."

"Oh yes because blindly following someone is the best plan of action." Heather mocked the surfer, who frowned at the diva.

"Someone with _leadership_ capabilities." Courtney pointed out, "Remember when we were on Team Amazon last season? We always worked best when _I_ took charge."

"Um wrong, I seem to recall you leading us to disaster. We only won so many times because of _me_." Heather countered and the two were about to go at it.

"Sigh," Bridgette looked up at the night sky, "I can't believe everything and everyone I know is being taken around me and I'm stuck with the two most dramatic girls I've ever met. Please let us be okay."

* * *

"Duncan!" Gwen ushered her boyfriend over as soon as she spotted his green Mohawk. The ex-con came quickly running over, but he stopped at the doorway and peered in.

"Hey!" Duncan greeted her briefly as he scanned the inside of the mansion, "Of course Chris lives like a king while the rest of us slum it in those stupid cabins."

Gwen smirked, "Typical McLean. Why aren't you coming inside?"

"I saw some of the girls get separated from the rest of us." Duncan admitted, "I know Alejandro, Harold and Geoff already went to look for them. But I think I should too."

"What? No, that's too dangerous!" Gwen insisted, now trying to pull her boyfriend inside.

Duncan didn't budge and he said, "I can't just leave her out there."

Gwen let go of his arm. An overwhelming wave of sadness and jealousy hit her; irony's a bitch. She searched his eyes for answers, but his face was stone cold. Without another word, Duncan turned around and vanished into the night back the way they'd come.

Gwen felt a presence behind her. Trent put a hand on her shoulder and said, "What's wrong Gwen? We've got DJ, Katie, Noah, Sierra and Cody inside and working quickly to get supplies and a defense going for the house. Have you seen anyone else?"

"No," Gwen turned to face him and all she saw was that look of sympathy she'd seen so many times over the years, "no one else."

Trent gave her a quick hug and whispered, "I'm sure Duncan will come back. And hopefully the others will make it too."

Gwen was taken aback by Trent's seemingly complacent attitude regarding Duncan. If she were in his position, she would probably hate Duncan with a passion. She realized that all her old thoughts and feelings about Trent were still true: kind, caring, thoughtful and loyal in the extreme. She felt for him there and returned the hug.

"I'm glad you're here." Gwen told him, meeting his gaze; his loving gaze.

They stood comfortably like that for a few moments before Chef's bellow startled the pair, "Enough lollygagging fruit cakes! Just cause there ain't no undead over here, don't mean they won't be soon."

* * *

Blaineley had long since gotten separated from Tyler and LeShawna and now she was wandering aimlessly through the woods. She may not have liked any of the others she was stuck on this island with, but even she admitted that walking around by herself with undead cannibals on the loose completely freaked her out.

She made a point of wielding the gun she'd picked up earlier and aiming it around in case something or someone jumped her. Her eyes had been fixated on retrieving the gun from the moment Chris dropped it. She was still seething over the fact that Chris and Chef wouldn't give her a gun over a couple of immature teenagers.

"Joke's on them now." Blaineley muttered and smirked. Now she had one of the guns and the chance to get the hell off this island alone. "I just need to get myself on a boat..."

Her primary concern at the moment was that she hadn't the faintest idea where the boat house was. But she knew if she could find it and hop onto the boat of losers, she could sail for the mainland and be saved from these atrocities. Or at least, so she hoped. She continued moving away from where she'd lost Tyler and LeShawna, hoping this was the quickest route to the boat house.

* * *

"I'm serious Courtney, listen to _me_!" Heather's tone was rising as she continued arguing about the direction they were going with the impatient CIT.

"Listening to you never got anyone very far." Courtney retorted, "Besides I already told you I know what I'm doing."

"Oh really?" Heather snarled at her, "Because I'm certain we've already passed this set of trees before."

"Oh are you suddenly an expert in the outdoors? I wouldn't think that possible from someone who's scared of even getting her hair wet on national TV." Courtney said icily in response.

"Okay that's enough both of you." Bridgette had finally had enough and she put her foot down, literally stopping their progress, "I get it, you don't like each other. But right now our predicament is a bit more important than a petty feud. So can you please both stop arguing?"

Courtney and Heather looked briefly at each other before Courtney nodded, "You're right Bridge. Sorry Heather. Temporary truce?"

Courtney offered her a handshake, which Heather accepted after a moment's hesitation. Heather looked at Bridgette and said, "Perhaps you should decide which way we go then. It's a fair enough way to settle this, I guess."

Courtney seemed content with this and Bridgette smiled warmly at the pair of them, "See how much better things are when we agree instead of bicker?" And with that, Bridgette now took the metaphorical reins and lead the trio of girls through the dangerous woods as she attempted to locate Chris' mansion.

* * *

"Why are they traveling in such a bizarre manner?" Harold asked, shaking his head as he studied the ground and the footprints being left behind by Bridgette, Heather and Courtney, "It's just making it harder to find them. Gosh."

"Like dude, where did you even learn to do that kind of stuff?" Geoff inquired, referring to Harold's tracking skills.

"I told you I have lots of wicked skills. I learned tracking at Scouting Steve's Scouting Camp and I've been a natural ever since." Harold boasted, sticking out his chest a bit.

"We do not have time for nonsense when Heather's life is at risk." Alejandro said, appearing very focused.

"Uh, it's not just Heather at risk dude." Geoff pointed out, but Alejandro seemed to disregard the statement as he continued along, moving at a quicker pace.

It wasn't long after that the boys heard a loud scream: a woman's scream. It sounded awfully familiar to all of them, and after quickly glancing at each other, they dashed off towards the noise.

Moments later, Geoff, Harold and Alejandro burst into a clear patch of woods where Courtney, Heather and Bridgette were currently being attacked by some of the undead. There were four of them in total, and one of them had just grabbed a hold of Bridgette and was reaching for her neck. Bridgette was desperately trying to keep it at arm's length while Courtney seemed to be lining up an attack with her pitiful kitchen knife Chef gave her earlier. Heather was busy screaming and slowly backing away from the two undead who were targeting her.

"I'm coming Bridgey Bear!" Geoff heroically charged the creature attacking his girlfriend and held the handgun right up against its temple, "Chew on this you undead creep!"

There was a resounding echo as the bullet went directly into the creature's brain and it ceased movement. It's arms went slack and the monster collapsed in a pool of its own blackish-reddish blood.

Harold had stayed back and taken careful aim through the scope of his rifle to shoot the one attacking Courtney. Courtney jumped back as Harold's shot went right through the creature's head and it was dead on impact. Courtney and Harold made eye contact from across the clearing and Courtney mouthed a silent "Thanks."

"Get away from me!" Heather was shrieking and shaking with fear as the other two closed in on her. Heather desperately threw her knife at one of them, but it ended up doing little damage and she cursed. As she was backing, she felt herself hit an overgrown root and she soon found her body falling to the ground.

Heather was trying to continue moving back whilst still on the ground, but her motion stopped when she realized something about one of the undead: it was Lindsay. Lindsay was now missing an arm and an eye, but there was no mistaking that blonde hair or outfit. Heather froze: for the first time since this began, her thoughts were not on survival. All she felt was guilt.

"Lindsay..." Heather blinked a few times as Lindsay stumbled closer to her, "oh God, everything I did to you..."

Obviously Lindsay didn't understand a word she was saying, but it didn't matter. Heather jumped back in shock as a blade came protruding through Lindsay's skull from behind. The dumb blonde zombie fell face first, landing inches away from Heather. Heather looked back up to see who her savior was: Alejandro, but he was now dealing with the second undead without his knife.

Alejandro's brow furrowed as he ran back a few paces, luring the creature away from Heather. He picked up a large rock in his right hand and then waited for the thing to catch up with him. As soon as it was close enough, Alejandro used all his bent up aggression and rage to beat the monster over the head with the rock. They both hit the ground, with Alejandro on top of it bludgeoning it to death with his rock. Even well after it was dead, Alejandro kept pummeling for a good ten seconds before finally stopping to catch his breath.

"Bastard." Alejandro spat at the bloodied mess as he got back up.

Bridgette had run straight into Geoff's arms and immediately began sobbing, "Oh Geoff, thank you for coming back for us! We were lost and all of a sudden those things they-"

"Shh, baby I know. It's okay." Geoff soothed her while she wept into his chest.

"We lost track of Blaineley, LeShawna and Tyler." Courtney was telling Harold, who seemed crestfallen over not knowing where LeShawna was, "But we definitely owe you one."

Harold merely nodded, not wishing to talk as LeShawna's fate seemed more and more likely to involve death. Heather was still on the ground next to Lindsay's body, seeming almost paralyzed with shock. The queen of mean was transfixed on the heap laying next to her; limp, lifeless, inhuman. Just a few hours ago, that had been a person she'd spent years of her life with. They'd been friends once, till Heather betrayed her, and now Heather would never have the chance to make up for what she'd done.

Heather felt herself being scooped up by someone and she wasn't very surprised to learn it was Alejandro. Alejandro seemed very angry as he looked into her eyes and said, "You're not allowed to die on me. Don't do that to me ever again."

Heather was touched as he repeated the words she'd spoken to him when he'd had his near death experience earlier that evening. And her little black heart melted a bit when she realized he wasn't actually angry with her, it was a look of concern and relief that she was still breathing.

"I won't, mi amor." Heather whispered so only he could hear her, "I promise."

The six of them heard two people burst through the underbrush nearby, and most were surprised to see the pair was Duncan and Blaineley.

"We need to move!" Duncan was relieved when he saw everyone was mostly alright, "I found Blaineley skulking in the woods and it wasn't hard to hear your gunfire from nearby."

"And if we heard it, so did those things." Blaineley added, seeming in a foul mood at having been found by Duncan at all.

"Then let's get to Chris' place." Courtney concluded, sharing a very quick look with Duncan before she went to help Bridgette instead. Duncan simply sighed and told himself at least she was alright and there would be time for making amends later. But right now, he was the only one who had actually made it to Chris' before and it was his responsibility to lead the way back.

* * *

"There it is!" LeShawna exclaimed with relief at something _finally_ having gone her way tonight. She pointed up ahead through some trees and about a hundred feet north of them she could see Gwen opening the doors to Chris' house and letting Duncan's group inside. There were no visible undead anywhere in sight; LeShawna assumed most had been distracted by that gun fire she'd heard not too long ago.

"Come on Tyler, we made it." LeShawna tried to spur him into action, but the jock simply hung his head.

"We didn't all make it..." Tyler trailed off darkly and tried to keep the tears at bay as he thought only of Lindsay.

LeShawna was about to attempt comforting him, but she heard in the bushes behind her a rustling of leaves and shrubbery. Something was moving towards her and she had only a kitchen knife to defend herself with.

To her great relief, the thing that was moving towards her was revealed to be none other than Ezekiel. Home school seemed just as surprised to see LeShawna as she was to see him.

"Zeke? Noah said you got lost in the woods leading those nasty things away." LeShawna said with a bit of a grin.

"I got 'em away from the girls, eh." Ezekiel said proudly and took note of Tyler's despair, "What happened to him?"

"Long story that I'll tell you when we get inside." LeShawna said and she grabbed Tyler, "At least we're alive."

The loudmouth carried the dumb jock to the mansion while Ezekiel hesitated for a moment. When LeShawna's back was turned to him, he lifted up his bloodied shirt to check on his wound: the bite mark looked even worse than earlier. He'd gotten it when he was separated from everyone else, but he fought off his attacked and fled into the woods. At one point he heard gunshots and decided to follow, but he could feel his body getting weaker.

But he didn't want to stand out in the darkness and die alone. So he put his shirt back in place and followed his fellow contestants into the house and allowed Gwen to close and lock the door behind him. The last of the survivors. For now.

 **Another down, and another soon to go. Will anyone survive the attack of the zombies? Let me know what you think in the reviews!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay**

 **ALIVE: Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Harold, Courtney, Beth, Cody, Tyler, Katie, Noah, Ezekiel (bitten), Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley, Chris, Chef**

 **UNKNOWN: Izzy**


	4. Chapter 4: The Long Farewell

**Happy 4th of July everyone! This one took me a few days to complete, but I've had a busy couple of days so I apologize. Although realistically, I'm not going to be able to pump out a new chapter every two days down the line.**

 **I hope everybody is enjoying the story so far, but don't forget to check out the poll in my profile about who you want to survive the zombie apocalypse. And don't forget to drop me a review so I know what you like, and maybe what you don't like.**

 **Enough of that, on with the story!**

 **WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activities and character death.**

* * *

"Hurray, the gang's all here." Noah said sarcastically as Gwen closed the door behind LeShawna, Tyler and Ezekiel. Noah noticed the blood on Zeke's shirt and he frowned, "You alright there, home school?"

"I'm fine, eh." Ezekiel claimed and Noah narrowed his eyes at him, "It was hard to find you guys though. At lot of running around in the woods and all."

"Leave him alone Noah," Katie snapped at the bookworm who raised an eyebrow, "Ezekiel saved me back at my cabin. I really appreciate what you did for me so I wouldn't end up like..."

Katie couldn't bring herself to say the name of her deceased best friend. After this brief conversation, Chef Hatchet had regained everyone's attention, "Alright listen up maggots. It seems we got ourselves a bit of a break from dealing with those brain munchers. We need to gather as much supplies as possible here and come with a strong plan to bust ourselves off this island."

"I've been gathering guns with Sierra and Cody." Chris reported to the group as the mentioned teens brought down a few boxes from the upstairs of Chris' residence, "I've got an additional four pistols with boxes of ammo, a machete, and a .357 magnum that I'll be taking for myself. I seem to have lost my handgun during the chaos earlier."

Blaineley purposely kept her face expressionless at that. Cody looked into the boxes containing ammo and his mouth fell open, "How come you have all this?"

"Um hello, wealthy reality TV show host who lugs around a million dollars every season?" Chris seemed offended Cody had to even ask, "I'm a very important person you know, it doesn't hurt to be protected."

"Look at that, Chris actually being useful for once." Gwen mocked and the host glared at her.

"Enough," Chef said gruffly, "we got four more guns to pass out. Who's taking 'em?"

"I will." Duncan and Courtney said at the exact same time.

Courtney frowned at him and said, "As _if_ we're letting a _criminal_ handle a firearm!"

Duncan rolled his eyes, "And you've spent much time around guns have you princess?"

Before Courtney could retort, Chef handed each of them a gun, "We don't have time for arguing. Criminal, don't make me regret giving you the gun."

"You steal one car and the world never shuts up about it." Duncan mumbled but when Chef prepared to berate him, Duncan wisely turned the other way.

"I will gladly take the machete Chef." Alejandro said and many were surprised he didn't request a gun for himself.

Chef didn't question him as he handed the Latino the very sharp machete. LeShawna was the next to request a weapon, "Chef, I think we both know LeShawna can handle herself around a gun. You learn to pick up a thing or two when you live where I do."

Chef nodded in understanding and gave LeShawna the third pistol. There was only one left, and yet again there were two volunteers.

"Give it to me." Heather and Gwen both stated, which was instantly followed by the two glaring daggers at each other.

"Surely we're not going to let Heather have the gun, right?" Beth asked Chef, "I mean, she's notoriously a backstabber."

"Watch your tongue." Alejandro warned Beth, who shrank back from his menacing look.

Chef gave the final pistol to Gwen before more arguing would ensue. Heather was steaming and without a word she stalked away into another room. No one went after her; no one really wanted to mess with an angry Heather.

"How come you didn't volunteer yourself for a gun?" Noah asked Blaineley suspiciously, "Last time you pitched a fit because Chef gave the guns to DJ and Geoff, but this time you were rather quiet."

"Because I knew they wouldn't have given me one." Blaineley huffed, sticking her nose up in the air. She made sure to keep the gun she'd stolen concealed, but she was paranoid someone might find out so she moved off to a different room in the upstairs of the house. She silently cursed Duncan for finding her at all: she would've rather tried to make a fun for it to the boat house. But at least she could say she was alive; a state of being others sadly could not claim.

"Under normal circumstances I would never allow any of you in my home," Chris was saying, "but given that the dead are rising up to attack the living, even I am willing to bend my own rules. My elaborate island getaway has plenty of room for all of you to spend the night, so I recommend you do. Assuming we bust out of here tomorrow, we got a long day ahead of us so get some shut eye."

"Um, what about Izzy?" Sierra raised her hand, "We still don't know where she went, but we promised we'd make a signal for her."

Chris faltered and glanced over at Chef as if to say _"This one's your call."_

Chef cleared his throat and said, "I'll come up with something, but for now listen to Chris. We'll alternate watches in case some of those undead attack during the night. Chris and I will take first watch."

"Cody and I can go see if the television is working and if there's any info on this outbreak." Harold said, straightening his glasses, "That way we might be able to deduce if this undead crisis is contained to just our island or not."

Chef nodded, "Good idea, get on that ASAP soldier." Harold saluted and moved away with Cody and Sierra to Chris' living room.

* * *

Geoff and Bridgette had claimed the first of many bedrooms for themselves. There was but one large bed in the room, but the pair didn't seem to mind one bit. Bridgette was currently cuddling with Geoff and he had an arm draped protectively over her.

"Geoff?" Bridgette spoke after a bit of a silence, "Do you think this will stop when we get off the island?"

"What do ya mean?" Geoff asked.

"I mean do you think these... _undead_ spread their infection throughout Canada? Or worse?" Bridgette bit her lip, her face flooded with concern.

"I have no idea," Geoff answered honestly and when she looked up at him with those frightful green eyes, he cupped her chin in his hand and added, "but regardless I will protect you. You are my entire world Bridge, I don't know what I would do without you."

Bridgette smiled, albeit only for a moment, before saying, "There's also the...other issue."

Bridgette put a hand on her stomach and added, "Should we tell the others? I meant to tell Gwen and LeShawna earlier, but with all that's been happening I-"

"Let's not worry the others with the news just yet," Geoff said nervously as he put his hand over hers, "they'll know in due time that we'll soon have another little dude or dudette running around."

"I hope so." Bridgette breathed quietly as she closed her eyes to go into a deep sleep, "I hope so."

* * *

LeShawna had seen a lot in her day, but she had never been faced with a situation where she was at a complete loss for answers on what to do. Sitting before her were two incredibly sad friends that she had no idea how to comfort them. Poor Beth and Tyler were still in shock over Lindsay's fate. Beth had only been told after LeShawna arrived, and once she had received the news she hadn't spoken much. Tyler had been in a world of his own. He was irresponsive and he had a faraway look in his eye: it was obvious his thoughts had nothing to do with what was happening around him at the moment.

"Guys," LeShawna tried to get their attention, but neither responded at first so she coughed and said loudly, "Guys!"

Beth looked up at her, silent tears running down her face. Tyler didn't seem fazed by the raising of her voice, but LeShawna carried on, "Look, you two both know I will do anything for a friend. And that's why y'all need to understand something: Lindsay is gone. I loved her like a sista, but there ain't nothing we can do to bring her back. And if you keep wallowing about like this, you're just going to end up like her."

Beth nodded silently, as if in understanding, but Tyler continued blanking LeShawna. Whether or not he even heard her was unknown, but she had said her spiel, painful as it was, and she had nothing else to say. She hoped they'd get it together and not end up like the others. LeShawna didn't know how many more losses she was going to be able to handle before she too finally cracked.

* * *

Alejandro stood in the doorway to the bedroom that Heather was occupying alone. He remained silent for now as he watched her go about her business: she seemed angry and she was searching the adjoining closet.

"Worthless, disgusting, useless, ugh!" Heather was tossing various knick knacks out of the closet and she stamped her foot, "Why does Chris even bother having a closet of junk? I mean seriously is this stuff from the 1920s?"

"Luckily I found something much more useful for you," Alejandro finally piped up, but Heather seemed to know he was already there, "close your eyes, chica."

Deciding to trust him, Heather closed her eyes. Alejandro crossed the threshold of the room till he was standing next to her. In his right hand he was holding a bag of items, which he carefully reached into and placed each individual item on the table in front of Heather. When he was done, he said, "Alright open them."

Heather blinked a few times and she saw Alejandro had placed quite a few items for her, the first being a pair of combat boots. When she looked questioningly at him, he said, "They may not be your size since I found them in Chris' spare room, but they should be much more effective for running than heels."

Heather nodded and moved on to the next item: a hand axe. "I know you were angry you were not given a pistol earlier. I was most irritated as well, a woman of your talents deserves to have the gun far more than Gwen." Alejandro explained, "So I went outside to Chris' shed and found this. I know it is not ideal, but it's better than a kitchen knife or nothing."

Heather lifted up the weapon and felt the weight of it. After a moment she said to him, "I imagine I look like I'm a flipping lumberjack about to go chop some wood. That is definitely not my aesthetic."

Alejandro smirked, "Ah my darling Heather, I think you look beautiful no matter what."

Heather put the hand axe down for now and looked at the last item. This one made her do a bit of a double take: it was Alejandro's jacket. She frowned, uncertain why he was giving this to her.

"The weather is getting cooler and cooler as we approach winter." Alejandro stated, grabbing the jacket and putting it on his girlfriend, "With all this going on, we wouldn't want you to lose a fight with a cold."

When Alejandro stood behind Heather to put the jacket on, he also whispered into her ear, "The others will never completely trust us unless we prove we deserve to be trusted. While the situation is not ideal, right now we have no other choice but to work with them as a big group. So even though Chef giving Gwen the gun over you is insulting to both of us, I advise patience. We must simply act like it doesn't bother us, and perhaps we will earn some much needed trust."

"Fine, but if Courtney or Gwen keeps on annoying me like they have been lately-" Heather warned but Alejandro put a finger to her lips.

"Remember mi amor, patience. They will get what's coming to them, but not yet. Alright?" Alejandro asked and after a moment of thought, Heather nodded. Alejandro smirked and pulled her in from behind for a hug, which she allowed. As far as they were concerned, it was them against the world. As usual.

* * *

Duncan had taken to one of Chris' guest rooms so that he could have a few minutes of solitude to rest and contemplate his current conditions. He'd always hated this island, this show, and many of the others who competed on it, but never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd be fighting for his life beside them against the forces of the dead. He knew now that he'd need the few friends he had to be with him to survive this ordeal. Unlike some of the others, he was much more realistic about the situation unfolding: he knew something this dangerous would've hit the mainland as well. Even if they got off this island, they wouldn't be returning to life as they knew it. That life was over; death welcomed them into a new world.

Duncan was laying on one of the beds, keeping his pistol right next to his body just in case. They may be safe temporarily, but he didn't want to be defenseless if their temporary paradise became threatened. Keeping himself safe was top priority. He bit his lip at the thought: it wasn't entirely true.

In his mind he knew that he ought to keep Gwen safe, and he truly did care for her. She was one of the only people on this show who didn't drive him crazy, and they were currently dating. But when he had arrived at Chris' cottage earlier and realized Gwen was safe but Courtney wasn't, he had chosen to go back for Courtney. He felt very conflicted over it: if he really cared for Gwen more, shouldn't he have stayed with her? Or because she was already safe did he think Courtney became the next priority after confirming Gwen was safe? He sighed heavily; he hated karma.

He heard someone pushing the door open, and Duncan immediately moved his hand towards the gun. He relaxed when it turned out to be Trent, though that definitely did bring a puzzled expression to Duncan's face.

"Need something Elvis?" Duncan asked sarcastically: he didn't really want to talk to Trent.

Trent seemed unfazed, "Oh, uh, I was looking for...someone else."

"Just say her name," Duncan said, though he surprised even himself when he sounded totally calm, "I've seen you looking at Gwen since this whole thing began."

Trent flushed, confirming Duncan's suspicion, and the guitar player said, "I just want to make sure she's safe. If nothing else, she's my closest friend and I would gladly give my life for her."

Duncan tried not to mock the sappiness Trent was showing off, but then it hit him: was _he_ willing to give his life for Gwen? He truly didn't think that he would, which made him feel admittedly a little guilty.

"Good," Duncan finally said and Trent looked shocked, "protect her, care for her, love her if you must. You have my blessing."

"Seriously?" Trent asked, perking up a bit as Duncan nodded, "Wow Duncan, that's really cool of you."

Duncan shrugged, "Whatever man, I don't do well with this happy, friendly stuff so just go on and do what you got to do."

Trent's smile was one of the happiest expressions Duncan had witnessed all day. Trent nodded and was about to leave the room when he stopped and said, "You should let Courtney know if you still have feelings for you. I hope it works out for you."

With that, Trent departed and left Duncan to his thoughts once again. Were his conflicting thoughts really that obvious to Trent and the others? It didn't really matter, because Duncan had realized something during this conversation with Trent. He wasn't willing to give his life for Gwen, that he was sure of. But when he thought of the same for Courtney, he was a lot less certain. In fact, he was fairly confident that he _would_ sacrifice himself for her if need be. He put his head in his hands: what was he going to do now?

* * *

DJ had tasked himself with gathering together food rations and putting them into backpacks for when the group made their expected trek off the island. Chef had told him it was best to be ready for anything, and everyone agreed that starving was the last thing they needed with all this mess happening.

DJ had just finished stuffing the tenth bag with cans of food and let out a huge yawn: man was he tired. After they'd all been in the cottage for a little while and the adrenaline had worn off, DJ realized just how exhausted he was. He decided to find a nice bed and sleep before the big day tomorrow.

As DJ was walking up the stairs, he heard the sound of crying coming from one of the bathrooms. Concerned, DJ moved in the direction of the bathroom and found that the door was slightly ajar. Inside was Katie, and DJ could see that she was holding her knees and crying. Her knife was sitting on the counter next to the sink, but DJ was relieved to see that Katie wasn't in any physical pain.

"Katie?" DJ spoke her name softly as he opened the door, "Is everything alright?"

"No," Katie sniffled out and looked up at him with puffy, red eyes, "how could everything be okay? I thought all of this might be a dream but...it's all real isn't it? There are monsters coming for us all, and they already got Owen, Justin, Lindsay and...Sadie."

Katie couldn't keep herself from more tears and she buried her head in her knees once again. DJ approached and put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, "It's awful, I know. But as my mama always used to tell me, a bad situation can be made better if you don't dwell on it too much. That little tidbit of advice made me a much more optimistic person once I started abiding by it."

"But how can we not dwell on it?" Katie asked him, "I was moments, no _seconds_ , away from being eaten alive. I stood there and watched while that unholy creature ripped Sadie apart like a turkey on Thanksgiving. If it weren't for you and Ezekiel, I would've died too. But maybe that would've been better so that I could be with Sadie-"

"Don't say that." DJ cut her off and Katie was surprised at how angry that seemed to make him, "You should never say things like that."

"I'm nothing without Sadie." Katie admitted, "I'm just going to drag the group down. I have no survival skills, hell the survival challenge was the one that got me eliminated back on Total Drama Island. Maybe you guys should just leave me behind when you leave and-"

"I won't allow that." DJ said sternly, "No one is getting left behind no matter what. And you are your own person Katie. I'm very sorry for your loss, I know how much Sadie meant to you. But you have to understand that you are a unique, beautiful girl who still has the ability to survive. You just have to believe in yourself."

For the first time, Katie smiled, "Is that another one of your mama's wise sayings?"

DJ blushed and he only just now noticed how close he had gotten to her throughout the conversation, "No, it's mine. I've found that confidence can go a long way. Will you trust me on that?"

Their eyes met and Katie saw nothing but genuine affection in his gaze. She nodded and whispered, "I trust you DJ. With everything I've got. I'll try my best."

"Good," DJ said as he gave her a warm hug, "I'm glad."

* * *

Ezekiel had tried his best to conceal his wounds, but he hadn't been able to escape the watchful eye of one of his fellow Total Drama contestants.

"You were bitten weren't you?" Noah asked from the doorway of the room Ezekiel had claimed for himself, "That blood on your clothes is your own, and you had no actual weapon to defend yourself out there in the woods. One of those things got you didn't they?"

Ezekiel hung his head in shame, "Don't tell anyone, eh. I don't want to alarm nobody-"

"You are literally carrying the infection inside your body. _Not_ telling anyone would probably get more of us killed." Noah said coldly, "I'm sorry, but you're a dead man walking. I'd rather not risk my life or one of the peons' life for someone who has no chance."

Noah quickly exited the room and Ezekiel tried to follow after him. However, the pain in his body was excruciating. He could already feel the hunger starting to control most of his thoughts and the temperature of his body was feverish. His stomach was tied in knots and sometimes when he closed his eyes, he pictured ravaging through someone's flesh. He blinked a couple of times and fell back down on the bed: what Noah did was out of his control at this point.

Downstairs, standing near the main entrance, Chef Hatchet and Chris McLean were quietly discussing realistic options they had regarding survival. They each held their guns just in case, although none of the undead had been spotted in quite some time.

"So we're going to take the bags of supplies and load everyone onto the yacht?" Chris summarized and Chef nodded.

"That's the gist of it, yeah. I know the yacht is large and takes a shit ton of fuel, but we need something that can carry everybody to the mainland." Chef stated.

"The yacht is on the dock of shame." Chris' face fell as he realized the boat was still where it was after it had dropped off the contestants earlier that day, "The undead are swarming all over the campgrounds and nearby areas. We're never going to make it to the boat without casualties."

"Don't think I don't already know that." Chef said darkly, "We'll use our guns to try and draw them elsewhere while we load the yacht, but it would take a fucking miracle for all these kids to make it."

"No kidding," Chris scoffed and then lowered his voice even further, "I also take it we aren't going to try and find Izzy?"

"The girl saved us, there's no doubt about that. But I'd be shocked if she's still alive out there by herself." Chef admitted, "I'm not willing to send anyone to find her. If we don't see her on our way to the docks tomorrow, I'll try and find her myself. But if I don't succeed, we leave without her."

At that point, Noah had come barreling down the stairs and was headed straight for the two adults, "Chef! Chris! We have a bit of a situation!"

"What's the problem soldier?" Chef asked, instantly cocking his shotgun.

"Ezekiel," Noah explained, "he's been bitten."

"What?" Chris asked, terrified, "Did one of those things get inside?"

Noah shook his head as others came to hear the conversation, "No, no, Prairie Boy was bit before he even entered the house."

"You mean he's infected and he willingly entered _my_ luxurious home? Without telling anyone?" Chris looked furious, and Noah affirmed everything he said, "Chef, we got to do something about it."

"You want to kill Zeke?" Harold asked and Chris' eyes burned with hatred for the formerly feral home schooled kid, "Isn't that unnecessary?"

"He's a danger to all of us." Noah stated, agreeing with Chris about something for once, "I don't enjoy it or anything, but we're safer having him...removed."

"You can't do that!" Katie exclaimed in outrage as she and DJ arrived on the scene, "Ezekiel saved my life! He doesn't deserve to be slaughtered like an animal by the likes of you!"

"I'm trying to _save_ us!" Noah sneered at Katie, "I'm sorry you're too dim-witted to understand such a simply concept, but allow me to enlighten you. If you get bit, you become one of them. You join _their_ ranks and then you try and eat people. Kind of like your friend Sadie."

"Take it back." Katie growled, "Take. It. Back!"

"Enough!" Chef roared and all fell silent, though Katie was still seething with anger towards Noah, "I'll go speak to Ezekiel, but scrawny kid is right. We can't risk him turning and biting any of us. So whoever wants to say their goodbyes, come with me."

Noah nodded, seeming satisfied with Chef's decision, and he did not go back upstairs with Chef to speak to Ezekiel. He felt people were already miffed with him, even though he did the right thing.

After a few people sort of considered the idea, only Katie and DJ went with Chef to speak with Ezekiel. When they got to his room, they could see his condition had visibly gotten a lot worse. There was blood around his mouth and all over his covers due to the fits of coughing that would take over his body. His forehead was dripping with sweat and he was trembling from the pains in his body.

"Listen up kid," Chef spoke a bit softer than usual as he stood by Ezekiel's side, "we salute you for your efforts, but your service has come to an end."

Although Ezekiel had never been military, he seemed honored by Chef's choice of words. He said shakily, "I guess this is the end, eh? I'm sorry I wasn't a bit more helpful."

Ezekiel was trying to keep it together, and DJ gave him a pat on the shoulder, "You were very helpful. I'm proud I got to know you over the last few years."

Zeke smiled at the friendly jock. Katie knelt down next to Ezekiel and said, "Thank you so much for saving my life. I'm very sorry that this is happening to you, and I'd like to apologize for the way I treated you over the years. I always thought you were just a sexist pig, but you proved to me that you really just wanted to protect the people you cared for. I'm sorry I misjudged you."

Katie kissed Ezekiel's cheek and he smiled, "That's all I ever wanted to do on this show. I wanted to prove to everyone that I wasn't like that at all. And if I've finally managed it, I can say I've achieved my own personal peace."

Katie squeezed his hand as if to say goodbye and she backed up so that Chef could speak to him one more time, "You ready soldier?"

Ezekiel took a deep breath, "Ever since I as bit, I knew it was going to be a long farewell. I'm ready to move on and experience something new."

Ezekiel said a few religious prayers before a look of peace and happiness etched its way onto his face. He closed his eyes and waited, accepting his fate. Chef took his knife and without hesitating, he stuck it right through the side of Ezekiel's head, hitting the brain and killing him instantly.

Katie had looked to DJ for comfort, who wrapped her into a hug so she didn't have to watch Chef kill Ezekiel. Chef cleaned the blade for a moment before telling the other two, "Get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a shit storm."

* * *

 **Okay so I know there was no zombie action in this chapter, but I thought we needed a nice calm before the storm chapter. Plus this story isn't just about gore and death, I want to focus on actual characters and their development as well.**

 **Also I'm curious what you guys think on what I'm doing with various relationships. I'm still trying to decide if I want certain relationships to happen and I'm interested in which ones you guys think I should do.**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel**

 **ALIVE: Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Harold, Courtney, Beth, Cody, Tyler, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley, Chris, Chef**

 **UNKNOWN: Izzy**


	5. Chapter 5: An Unpleasant Surprise

**Hey everyone, sorry for the delay on the story. I've been really busy lately so I haven't had much time to write, but luckily I managed to get this one out. The action's about to get _really_ intense so I'm pretty pumped for that. Don't forget to vote in the poll on my profile for who you want to survive. I've been keeping track of it so far and it's interesting to me what different people vote. Didn't know Gwen was such a popular gal lol**

 **Anyway, drop me a sick review of you want so I know what you're really thinking of the story. And without further adieu, the chapter!**

 **WARNING: This story will contain scenes of violence, sexual activities, swearing and character deaths.**

* * *

While Cody and Harold were messing around with Chris' television in the living room, Sierra had deigned herself more useful by watching. She'd always admired Cody's skill and technique with technology and while she was an obsessed blogger, she didn't pretend to have any idea how to actually repair anything. Plus, she enjoyed watching Cody work at something he was genuinely good at. He had his beaming smile on while he and Harold tinkered about. It made Sierra happy.

She had tried calling 911 with her cell phone that Chris, thankfully, had not confiscated upon arrival. However, as she expected, Sierra did not receive an answer. She knew this meant they were probably right in assuming whatever was happening was a national, if not global phenomenon. She had relayed this information to Chris, who hung his head solemnly.

"Got it!" Cody called, snapping Sierra out of her thoughts, as the TV sparked to life in front of the two geeks.

"Nice!" Harold gave Cody a high-five and others were starting to gather as a newscaster's urgent voice from the TV read out an important decree.

"For those of you who are still watching this broadcast, we have urgent updates for you." The newscaster, a handsome young man with pushed back light brown hair and a dazzling smile, spoke, "I'm special reporter Topher and I'll be bringing you this coverage as we receive information."

"Didn't that guy try to audition for your show?" Sierra asked Chris, who had just sauntered in.

Chris nodded with a snarl, "He did, the smartass jerk. We said no because he just wanted to take over my position as host."

"Be quiet," Gwen hissed in annoyance at the two of them, "and watch the damn broadcast."

"As everyone should be aware by this point, we are facing something we have never dealt with: a global virus." Topher said, his voice more serious now and his smile fading, "We have received startling reports of people rising out of the ground, who were once dead. These reanimated corpses are currently being referred to by all government agencies and military forces as 'zombies'. These zombies don't seem to have much intelligence to them and only appear to have one identifiable goal: to eat the brains of living humans."

"I've seen all this first hand, and I still think that is straight up nasty." LeShawna said and many others around her nodded.

"Scientists around the globe are working frantically to understand where these creatures gained the ability to become reanimated, as well as develop some sort of a cure. We can confirm that if anyone is bitten by these zombies, they are infected with their virus and will eventually become one of them. The time it takes for reanimation to occur is currently unknown due to varying reports of times ranging from ten minutes to five hours. At this moment in time there is no way of preventing reanimation without destroying the brain. This is a very special announcement directly from the leaders of the United Nations: citizens are being granted legal permission to kill anyone who has been infected with this virus in the hopes that this will reduce the number of zombies and give scientists the time and opportunity to create a vaccine to combat this infestation. At the moment, the only known ways to kill one of the infected is by destroying its brain. It appears that while they seek to eat our brains, they can only be defeated by having their own brain destroyed." Topher continued his commentary, but this news was the most shocking yet.

"Legal to kill?" Duncan's eyes widened, "I mean, Chef already did that a couple of times, and I'm sure others have outside this island, but I'm shocked those cowards in the government would approve of this."

"I'm not." Chef said with a shake of his head, "It's because they're cowards that they approve. They don't want to take the chance that they might be infected too."

"Currently, national military forces are doing their very best to escort citizens to protected zones where the undead have not been able to get in." Topher continued, "Many major cities all over the world are still under control of respective governments and are under intense protection from the military. We urge all of you who are not in the safety of these cities to try your best to reach one of the soon-to-be-mentioned safe zones so that you may be accounted for and protected."

"Safe zones?" Beth perked her head up hopefully, "Maybe we can get to one and we'll be okay!"

"It would be very risky," Chef said warningly, "cities are bound to have a shit ton of people flocking to 'em. Who's to say they won't let someone in who's already been bit?"

"I'm sure the military do screening." Courtney said matter-of-factly, "For something this serious, there's no way they wouldn't do everything in their power to make sure there's no breach in safety. And safety always comes first."

"You forgot the obvious Miss Law-Lover," Duncan told her and she frowned at the nickname, "people can sneak into cities. Even with a military presence, if there's a will there's a way."

"I imagine Duncan knows what he's talking about considering his brain only thinks about breaking rules and finding loopholes." Cody said and there were a few laughs at the comment.

"Criminal boy is right," Chef said and Duncan nodded appreciatively at him, "it's too dangerous with the chance of people slipping through undetected."

"Would people actually do that even if they were infected?" Geoff asked.

"If the people you cared about were inside and you knew you would be left behind, wouldn't you want to try and go with your loved ones?" Sierra asked him with a side-long glance at Cody. Geoff looked over at Bridgette and chose not to say anything else. He simply reached down for her hand and held it comfortingly.

"Well what do you propose we do then?" Blaineley finally addressed Chef Hatchet, "Since you're apparently an 'expert' in these situations."

"I never said that," Chef told her icily, "but if you want my opinion, I think we just need to get ourselves off this damn island and find a nice place to hole up on the mainland. At least until we get more news of this possible cure thing."

"And how are we going to know if we're in the middle of nowhere instead of going to the city?" Blaineley countered, "The city is definitely the best option, especially for important personnel like us."

"What makes you think we're considered important?" Chef growled angrily at her, "Cause we're reality show hosts and contestants? That's not going to mean shit. Important people are military, doctors, scientists, engineers and farmers. Dramatic teenagers and a washed up reality host woman are low on a priorities list."

"Washed up?" Blaineley looked very offended, "I'll have you know I won a-"

"No one cares what awards you won," Chef interrupted her, "you're not going to get any preferential treatment because of them. In the city you'll just be another refugee, we all will be. And I don't like our chances if we go there."

"Do you really think we can survive just us?" Katie asked Chef quietly, "I mean, besides you, none of us have any real combat experience. If we get surrounded, we're pretty much dead."

"Speak for yourself sweetheart, I know plenty about weapons." Duncan said proudly and looked around at a few others, "And I don't think I'm the only one."

"I know way more than Duncan," Harold said with a smirk, "I can kill these 'zombies' with one hand tied behind my back. They won't know what hit them after I unleash my wicked skills on them."

"Regardless, Katie has a point." DJ came to her aid, "We're just a bunch of kids and frankly we're scared."

Chef Hatchet looked around and judged the looks of the former reality stars. DJ was right, he realized; despite some of them trying to look all tough, Chef could see the look of fear in the eyes of those around him. Beth was trembling, Katie looked sullen, Geoff and Bridgette were looking worriedly at each other, even Chris seemed to be shaken by all of these events.

Chef sighed, "I understand you're scared, I'm scared too. We'd be fools not to be. These zombies, as the newscaster put it, have already taken six of our own away from us. They took down Sadie, Owen, Eva, Justin, Lindsay and Ezekiel. They will more than likely kill more of us in the process of escaping and surviving off of this island. We're going to have more than a few scary moments along the way, and more than likely some devastating losses."

The former-military man paused his speech just to make sure he had everyone's attention before continuing, "But if I learned anything during my service, it's that you have to be willing to take risks if you want to live. I had a rough time of it in Afghanistan, there were plenty of times where I thought I was going to die. But I was offered a way out of a tight situation where my team was pinned down: thing was it required a major risk to be taken. Even with the risk, half my team didn't survive, but I did. And none of us would've lived if we didn't try. So we have to try and take the chance of surviving on our own. We'll all pull our own weight, we'll all survive together as a team."

Chef was not expecting such a positive reaction to his speech. He had tried to be inspiring, but being inspirational had never been one of his strong suits. He was more suited to following orders than actually giving them, but the Total Drama contestants seemed to be revitalized with a hope. With a chance that they could survive. It brought a rare smile to Chef's badly scarred face.

"We'll make it," Trent was the first to speak, supporting Chef's claim, and he turned to his fellow survivors, "I believe we can. A little trust and a little teamwork can go a long way."

"Some of us are more team players than others." LeShawna said with a pointed look at Heather, but the queen bee chose not to respond.

"Enough of that," Chef grumbled, "everyone get some shut eye except those on watch. Chris and I are done for now so CIT and Criminal you're on watch now. We'll go over the plan in the morning and then we're busting out of this hell hole."

"It's not _that_ bad." Chris protested in defense of his reality show home, but the looks he was receiving were enough for him not to push the subject.

* * *

Courtney and Duncan had been together on watch for nearly two hours now and not a single zombie had bothered them. Duncan would periodically check by peaking out the window, but each time he was met with the same sight; nothing but the gloomy, dark shapes of the trees surrounding Chris' island getaway.

On one such occasion of him checking the window, he heard Courtney snap, "I wish you would stop doing that. If you keep making yourself obvious, eventually you're going to be spotted."

"If I don't look, how are we going to know if they're coming?" Duncan replied, "Besides, I didn't know you cared Princess."

"Ugh!" Courtney stamped her foot in frustration, "Stop calling me that!"

"Keep your voice down unless you want to attract the undead." Duncan chided, clearly amused with Courtney being flustered. This time, Courtney listened because she understood the risks of the zombies being drawn by loud noises.

"You're right," Courtney said, much quieter, "but Duncan answer me this: why _do_ you call me those nicknames? Why do you constantly egg me on?"

Crap. Duncan realized she had him there; he didn't want to answer. He felt his face flush, but he was grateful for the cover the black night provided for him. For a moment, they just sat there with Courtney looking expectantly at him and Duncan not speaking. Finally Duncan started to say, "I guess it's cause I-"

There was a gunshot from outside and both teens jumped up in shock. After a shared glance, Duncan raced over to the window to peer out and see what had made the noise. He couldn't see anything different than before, but he heard it again: a second gunshot.

They both heard footsteps on the stairs as Chef came barreling down to join them. He barked at them, "Who's firing shots?"

"It's coming from outside!" Duncan pointed out the window, though there was nothing decipherable, "Neither of us fired, I swear!"

"Well maybe it's crazy girl," They heard Heather's voice from the stairs as a few others had woken up from the noise, "but no matter who it is, they better stop shooting the gun. It's just going to draw those things towards us."

"If it's Izzy, I say we go get her." Gwen said from next to Heather, "She saved all of our lives, it's the least we can do for her."

"Um guys," Trent's worried voice came from the kitchen area, "we're about to have bigger problems!"

And then they all heard the sound of shattering glass as the monsters from hell entered the house.

* * *

"Shit!" Chef hissed as he fired his shotgun at the oncoming horde that was plowing through the windows, causing glass shards to go flying about the rooms, "Alright fruit cakes, pack up your stuff and let's go. _Now_!"

Many of the campers fled, terrified, back up the stairs, however some stayed behind to help in the fight. Duncan and Harold fired at the zombies, killing a few of them, but they quickly realized there were too many to fend off. Chef was right, they had to get out of there fast.

"Everyone, we're going to run for the yacht!" Chef was shouting as the blood and adrenaline kicked in. "We aren't going to be able to hold 'em!"

"Come on!" Courtney started directed some of her fellow contestants towards one of the doors that hadn't been targeted by the undead, "Chef, I'll start leading people to the docks. I've got an excellent sense of direction so I-"

"Just move!" Chef bellowed and Courtney needed no second invitation as she lead the way out the door for a good amount of the group. Among the first ones that reached the door with Courtney were Beth, Katie, Noah, Trent, Alejandro and Heather. Others were soon to follow, as the host of the show himself literally shoved Blaineley out of the way so he could escape. Blaineley glared hatefully at him but was the next to flee the cottage.

"Alright Doris," Duncan said to Harold, "either unleash these 'wicked skills' of yours or let's bolt!"

DJ, Geoff and Bridgette had made it out the door amid the shouts and explosions of gun fire. LeShawna was trying to get a very despondent Tyler to run with little success. The red-plaid jock simply stared vacantly at the oncoming zombies and made no move whatsoever to flee. Gwen, Cody and Sierra were quickly putting their things into their bags and barreling down the stairs.

"Never underestimate me Duncan." Harold replied briskly as he pointed his rifle at a zombie who was only inches away, "And don't call me Doris!"

Harold blasted the zombie to smithereens, but his victory was not to be celebrated. More and more were entering the house, and those still inside were starting to lose their window of opportunity.

Duncan took a look at those still struggling inside, particularly at Gwen, but he finally shook his head, "I'm leaving."

Duncan hurriedly left the house and found himself enveloped in darkness. The only light that could be seen was from inside the house, and when he looked around he couldn't see any of his friends. Fortunately for him, that didn't last long. He felt someone pull him to his feet: it was DJ. Duncan said a quick thanks to his buddy before the two of them ran after Courtney and the others.

* * *

Things were getting intense inside Chris' mansion. Somehow the place was on fire as something must have struck a flame amidst the chaos and insanity going on inside. Tyler still wasn't moving and it appeared LeShawna had given up on him.

"I didn't survive fifteen years in the projects to die here protecting a chicken." LeShawna hissed angrily at Tyler as she pulled out the pistol Chef gave her earlier to join the fray, "If LeShawna is leaving this world, it's going to be in a damn fight."

"So beautiful..." Harold admired, but a zombie snapping for his arms brought him back into focus. He killed that one like many before, but their numbers seemed to be increasing whereas the group was shrinking.

"Time to go!" Chef shouted, his voice growing hoarse as he charged through to the door the others had run out of.

Sierra knelt down so Cody could get on her shoulders while she ran, that way she could still use the katana to attack anything that jumped in their path. Gwen took one pitiful look at Tyler before she soon followed after them. Unfortunately for the Goth, one of the undead grabbed hold of her in her attempt to escape and she got pulled down hard on Chris' marble tiled floor.

She yelped in pain and tried to kick at the creature, but it seemed that her attacks were feeble at best. The zombie had grabbed her leg and was now slowly climbing its way towards her to get a nice tasty bite of its newest meal. Meanwhile, zombies had started moving for Tyler now that no one was standing in front of him to protect. LeShawna stood between Gwen and Tyler's predicaments, having to make an important choice.

It wasn't really much of a choice. Gwen closed her eyes, but she felt the grip slacken as a gunshot went off. When she opened her eyes, Gwen could see that LeShawna had just shot the zombie trying to chew on her. LeShawna quickly aided Gwen to her feet and the girls ran after Chef, Harold, Sierra and Cody. No one looked back as Tyler was completely and utterly swarmed. He didn't do anything to defend himself. All he did was shed a single tear for the fall of his beloved.

Outside, Chef's group could actually see quite well since the house was emitting quite the glow from the hot flames erupting from it. Sierra had not yet put Cody down, something he was actually okay with for once, and she was worriedly looking around. Aside from Chef, Harold, LeShawna, Gwen and Cody, Sierra could not see anyone else. It appeared Courtney had led the group away from the house successfully though, because no one could see any bodies of their friends. That was the only good news for the moment.

"We can't stay here." Cody urged the others with him, "We need to follow the others and get to the dock-"

The sound of another huge explosion interrupted him, though this time it didn't come from the house. It came from the woods, vaguely in the direction the initial gunshots had come from. The light from the explosion was so bright, it was practically blinding to those standing outside the house. They could see several of the zombies who were close to the area of effect of the explosion were quite literally torn to shreds by the impact.

It didn't take too long to discover the source of the explosion. A familiar red-headed girl with frizzy red hair and a rifle in her hand came sprinting towards them. Izzy had certainly seen better days than the one she'd spent away from her competitors and friends. Her outfit was shredded, she had many bruises and cuts all along her body, and her face was covered in blood. In fact, the group almost mistook her for a zombie because she had so much blood on her face. It was almost as if she'd smeared it on herself.

"Jumping jellyfish, what happened to you?" Harold asked Izzy, both relieved and amazed at her reappearance.

"A trick Owen taught me, though with different context completely." Izzy said, her breath ragged and disoriented, "Remember the paintball hunting challenge from season one? He used familiar scents to mask himself within, as if to hide in plain sight."

"So you doused yourself with zombie blood to blend in with the dead." Cody surmised and she nodded. Cody grinned, "It's actually quite brilliant really."

"We're glad you're okay and all, and I'm sure we have a lot to catch up on." Gwen stated, "But we need to make a run for the docks like, now."

Chef nodded, "Gwen's right, we can't chat like nothing is happening. So move maggots, move!"

The group started running, glad to welcome Izzy back into the fold, although the ginger haired girl had a warning for them, "Just so you guys know, I was at the docks earlier. After I lead the undead away from the mess hall, I circled around the campsite in the woods before returning to see where you guys might have gone. While I was doing this, I saw the docks: the docks are _covered_ with undead. The entire campsite might as well be a summer camp for the undead."

"How many of these things are there?" LeShawna grumbled as she panted: running was not her favorite activity and she'd done a lot of it lately.

"That's the thing," Izzy said with warning, "none of those undead were interns, crewman or anyone who was staying on this island for the show. They looked like ordinary people from the mainland."

"Then how did they get to the island?" Gwen asked from her other side, "Has this ordeal been happening for even longer and we just didn't know?"

"I should've seen something about it on my phone," Sierra reminded her, "although I do have pretty lousy connection here."

"It doesn't matter, the point is that if those creatures are from the mainland it means one of two things." Izzy said, "One: those monsters can swim or at least move through water. Or two: someone brought them to the island."

There was a silence amongst the seven of them until Chef, his curiosity peaked, finally asked, "If it's the latter option, how the hell could anyone do that? And more importantly, _who_ would do such a horrible thing?"

"I don't know Cheffy," Izzy said solemnly, "but one thing's for sure: we're in the apocalypse now. The end of the world is upon us."

* * *

 **Not my best effort, but there you have it. The group reunites with Izzy, though only some of them do, and we say goodbye to yet another character. Originally I wasn't going to kill Tyler in this chapter, I was going to have him be an important character. However, I realized this chapter could use a death and he was the only one I was willing to part with at this stage. I think it's reasonable he would've been devastated about Lindsay and thus it was his undoing. Let me know what you think though, should I have killed him off?**

 **Also hope you enjoy the cameo appearance from Topher. The season 4 and season 6 cast will slowly appear in the story, with some playing a bigger role than others. We may even see Ridonculous Race characters at some point.**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler**

 **ALIVE: Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Izzy, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Harold, Courtney, Beth, Cody, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley, Chris and Chef Hatchet**


	6. Chapter 6: Angel of Death

**I'm back with another chapter! I think it's more realistic to expect infrequent updates like this one. Those first couple chapters I managed within like four days? An anomaly. No way I'm going to be able to do that consistently, regardless of how much I enjoy writing this story.**

 **I'd like to thank those who have reviewed and expressed their likes (and possibly dislikes) about the story. I've gotten great reviews and it seems people really are enjoying the fic. I hope that continues! So drop me some reviews to help me learn what you're all thinking about the story!**

 **And now, on with the chapter!**

 **WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character deaths.**

* * *

Courtney led the way through the dense woods for quite some time before her eventual pause. She had turned around at some point to count up who all was with her: she saw Chris, Beth, Heather, Bridgette, DJ, Geoff, Katie, Noah, Blaineley, Duncan, Trent and Alejandro had managed to escape with her. Counting herself, that was thirteen.

 _Only thirteen of us made it out?_ Courtney found herself questioning and feeling sad: that meant Gwen was gone. She knew what she'd said about the boyfriend stealer before and how she would never forgive her, but Courtney was sorry she'd ever said such things. Now Gwen was gone and there wouldn't be a chance for Courtney to try and mend their broken friendship.

"Should we stop to see if the others made it out?" She jumped as Trent spoke to her; Trent. She couldn't even bear to look at him to see the pain he was feeling. She was no fool: Courtney knew Trent had never given up on Gwen.

She swallowed hard, "We can take a five minute rest break, but you heard Chef. Our instructions were to get to the yacht as quickly as possible to leave the island."

"We're not going to leave without at least waiting for the others though, right?" Bridgette asked, uncertain of how Courtney was going to answer.

"When we board the yacht, if it's possible, we'll stay docked and see if the others show up." Courtney decreed, "I'm sure Chef would think that's the honorable thing to do."

"Well Chef isn't here." Blaineley's voice cut across intensely, "And therefore we don't have to listen to that psycho's rules and plans. We're going to get on that yacht and leave, no questions asked."

"What? But that's so mean." Beth protested.

"Since when did you think you could boss everybody around?" Chris asked Blaineley angrily, "That's supposed to be my job!"

"Oh please, you're a spineless coward." Blaineley retorted, "You claim to be this big shot who has all sorts of great ideas, and yet you let Chef Crazy lead the group and get plenty of people killed."

"I let Chef take the reins because he has had actual military experience." Chris defended himself, "I may be shallow but I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't know what to do in this kind of a situation."

"Then let _me_ take charge." Blaineley said, pointing at herself with her extended thumb, "Since we're the only adults here, it makes perfect sense. So shut it Courtney and let the grownups handle this."

"Only _I'm_ allowed to bully my campers." Chris said, actually seeming angry, "How dare you!"

"This is all quite fascinating," Noah piped up, "but why don't we worry about things that are of _actual_ concern right now? Like not arguing loud enough for everything in Canada to hear?"

"The little dude is right, things are getting way too heavy." Geoff was the surprise aid to Noah's comment, "Let's just relax man."

"As if I'm going to take the advice of a boy with the IQ of a peanut." Blaineley scoffed with dismissal towards Geoff, who frowned, "We're going to follow what I-"

"We're moving on." Courtney stated firmly, regaining control of the situation, "We can argue when we're safely on that boat, but for now we're leaving. Anyone who wants to stay and shout at each other can do so without me."

The arguing ceased, though tempers were still running high. No one wanted to be left behind, so everyone kept their egos in check for now and continued along the path under Courtney's guidance. At one point, a slightly irritated Heather did whisper to Alejandro, "But seriously, why _does_ Courtney get to be in charge? I would do a much better job."

"Patience _mi angel,"_ Alejandro purred quietly, "we'll have our chance, but for now let them fight it out. And when the fight is over, we will make _our_ move."

* * *

Chef, Harold, Gwen, Sierra, Cody, LeShawna and Izzy had been running to try and catch up to the others. Izzy's massive explosion that she had caused was, fortunately, the reason why no zombies really pestered them on their journey. But unfortunately, they didn't know the exact path Courtney had taken and they couldn't really know how far behind they were. Or even if the other group was still alive.

LeShawna was having the most difficulties keeping up. She was panting heavily and finally stopped, putting her arm against a tree, "Running is not my thing, I'm not sure how much farther I can go."

Gwen skidded to a stop, prompting the others to join her, and she walked back to LeShawna to place her hand on her shoulder, "No problem, we can take a quick break. I owe you at least that much for coming back to save me at the cottage."

"Girl don't even worry about it. You're one of my sisters, and I _always_ look at for my sisters!" LeShawna grinned back at the Goth and gave her a fist bump.

"I'll stand watch!" Sierra declared and then giggled, "Oh my gosh Codykins, this is just like that time on the plane in season three when you said you had very important business and you asked me to stand watch against the others! It had something to do with a picture and-"

Cody blushed, recalling _exactly_ the instance Sierra was talking about, and he could not bring himself to look over at Gwen. Luckily, Gwen was a bit preoccupied with LeShawna and no one was really listening to Sierra.

"We shouldn't be taking many breaks." Chef was grumbling, more to himself than anybody else, "Those things might be slow, but they don't seem to tire."

"Indeed, their endurance is unrivaled." Harold said, pushing up his glasses as he spoke, "Their lack of sensitivity to anything short of death is astounding and magnificent. The neuroscience field will be-"

"Shut up!" Chef snapped at him, stopping the geek midsentence and raising his voice unnecessarily. Everyone collectively cringed and the cook breathed out, "Sorry, I just can't stand those annoying factoids o' yours."

"We should get moving again." Gwen said, slightly fearful, "Loud sounds seem to attract the zombies and Chef's shouting reminds me of a siren."

Chef would have retorted, except that she had a point. Swallowing his insult for the time being, Chef got the others into formation and the group continued their search for both the docks and the other campers.

* * *

After a long time of fumbling their way through the woods, Courtney's group found themselves just on the edge of the tree line between the woods and the campgrounds of Camp Wawanakwa. The cabins were no longer intact, with some of them having burned down in the fire started by Duncan's lighter. A few of the cabins looked badly damaged aside from some singe marks, and no one even considered going back to them to get anything they may have left there: it was left for dead.

There were plenty of zombies still roaming around the campground; some crew and interns, others ordinary looking citizens. This brought much confusion to the campers, but something else caught their attention: the yacht. To their great relief, the yacht looked to be untouched and was still anchored peacefully on the dock. The moonlight even seemed to shine down on the boat, as if painting the yacht in the light of safety. And heaven. Now they just had to get there.

"Okay we have an objective and a serious problem." Courtney addressed the group, her voice very low, "The yacht is still there, but there's tons of disgusting zombies wandering about. We need to find a way to get rid of them, or at least distract them long enough for us to escape to the yacht. Any ideas?"

"Chris could go offer them his hair gel and fashion tips," Blaineley said sarcastically, "as hideous as he is, his style would be a significant improvement for those deadbeats."

"Or maybe we could feed the most useless member of our group to the z-freaks to allow the rest of us a chance." Heather sneered at Blaineley, "You want to know who that might be? Her name rhymes with plainly-"

"Um guys, not helpful." DJ interjected while the girls all glared at each other, along with Chris as he checked to make sure his bag of hair gel was still there. "But I think a distraction would be good. Wait, Chris that's it!"

Chris looked confused as the brick house grabbed his bag and hoisted it into the air, "We can use Chris' bag of hair gel and other assorted products to distract the zombies!"

"That has got to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard." Noah deadpanned.

"Hear him out, I think he has an interesting idea." Katie said, gesturing for DJ to continue.

"If we douse Chris' bag, and maybe even one other, with perfume, deodorant, hair gel, shampoo and hair spray, the bag is going to smell a lot like my mama's church makeup kit. And that stuff is rank." DJ explained, "We throw the bag over by the cabins, and the zombies are attracted to the scent and the sound it makes when it lands in the cabin!"

"Could work..." Courtney considered it, though she didn't sound one hundred percent sold on the idea.

"I think it's brilliant." Katie smiled at DJ, who returned the smile, "I can give you my bag too, there's hair spray and stuff in it. I shared this bag with Sadie, but we don't really need it now..."

DJ put a hand on her shoulder, "Thanks Katie, that's really thoughtful of you to offer. Why don't you help me figure out what to use to make the bags have a really strong smell?"

"Yeah alright." Katie accepted, very pleased to be considered useful after her meltdown in the bathroom a few hours ago.

"Even if this...odd plan works," Alejandro began, "we still have to get all of us onto the yacht undetected and then remove the anchor from the boat. All this while still waiting for Chef and the others to show up."

"Which we don't have to do." Blaineley reminded him, "So here's what we do. After mama's boy and idiot girl finish their little project, the rest of us will make a run for the yacht. The strongest people will deal with the anchor and then we set sail, got it?"

"No," Trent said firmly, "we're going to at least give the others a chance to catch up once we're on the yacht."

"You people are so stupid-" Blaineley began but Chris cut her off.

"Just shut up _Mildred_!" Chris spat, "I like the kids' plan. Ready whenever you are DJ."

"Since when did Chris start caring about our opinions? Or actually be nice to us?" Bridgette asked Geoff. The best he could do was shrug his shoulders.

"Just remember everybody," Courtney said, "wait and see if DJ's plan works before running. Okay?"

They nodded, though some looked very jittery. Beth arguably the most nervous among them. The farm girl was trying desperately to keep it together and now that she could see the yacht she felt slightly more relieved. All she needed to do was get on board.

While DJ and Katie wrapped up their noxious concoction, Chris had pulled Duncan and Heather aside. Both were confused and displeased: they hated the reality show host they'd been forced to spend three years with.

"What do you want McLean?" Duncan asked aggressively.

"I just wanted to let you guys know...I'm very proud of you both." Chris managed to get out and both of them looked stunned: Chris was _praising_ them?

"Okay, who are you and what did you do with Chris the creep?" Heather asked.

"You both won my show." Chris was flushed with embarrassment at being nice for a change, but he wanted to get it out, "You two are among the highest rated characters on the show and it helped that you emerged victorious. You both, along with Owen, did wonders for my image and my life. So even though you didn't really win the competition for me, I wanted to say thank you."

They were both silent as the processed this. Finally Heather asked, "Is that why you had our photos inside your mansion?"

Chris nodded, "You two and Owen were special because you won. But everybody, in one way or another, helped me get to the fame and fortune I now live. I have pictures of everyone in my gallery of fame because I cared about each and every one of them. I was only really sadistic and mean-"

"Not to mention annoying, cruel, antagonizing-" Duncan started rattling off other descriptive adjectives.

"My point is I only did it for ratings." Chris claimed, "I just wanted you to know that I'm not heartless."

"Wow, well thanks for telling us I guess." Duncan said, sharing a glance with Heather, "I guess you're not a total psychopath after all."

"Finished!" Katie said proudly, holding up the bags. Everybody plugged their noses as she handed them to DJ to throw; he was bigger and stronger after all.

"Alright everybody, here goes nothing." DJ gulped and counted to five in his head before he launched the bags as far away from him and towards the campgrounds as he could manage.

It appeared the plan was working. Several of the zombies milling about the camp went to investigate this object with a strange new scent. Even the ones near the dock saw the movements of their comrades and slowly made their way to join them.

"It's safe." Beth exclaimed with pure relief and was the first to begin on her way towards the yacht, Chris and Blaineley right behind her.

"Wait!" Courtney cried out a warning, "We should wait longer!"

But the nerves and anxiety were what got Beth. She didn't register Courtney's words at all as she started running for the boat. It was so close and the zombies were distracted anyway. DJ's brilliant plan was going to save her life and she would be forever indebted to him. She could already picture herself making a friendship bracelet for him once they were inland.

Then she was jumped by a zombie she hadn't seen in her blind rush for the yacht. Standing on the side of one of the cabins, just in her blind spot, was a very young looking child. Then when looked at more closely, it was easily determined that this child had been infected. It stared at Beth with big, wide eyes, as it clutched it's little teddy bear in one hand. Beth froze: the poor thing, it was just a kid. How could she hurt it?

Well, the zombie kid didn't have the same concerns. It jumped on top of Beth, shocking her, and immediately bit down on Beth's nose. Beth shrieked and tried to push the former child off of her but to no avail. After it finished chomping on her nose, it had moved onto her eyes and now Beth could feel the sheer agony of having one of her eyes get plucked out of its socket. She was sobbing and she knew it wouldn't be long before she became one of them too. Those were her final thoughts.

Chris had also panicked and begun running towards the yacht, but after seeing Beth go down he was more interested in returning to the group. But as he turned to run back, he yelped as he came face to face with a zombified intern whom he had tortured a _lot_ in his run as the show's host.

"Nice intern..." Chris said, slowly backing away as it snarled at him, "I'll give you a raise?"

The zombie reached for him with outstretched arms and grabbed a hold of him. After struggling for a moment, Chris closed his eyes, ready to embrace death. He knew he deserved it as karma for everything he had done in his life.

Then he felt the grip on his arms slacken. He opened his eyes and saw that it was surprisingly Heather who had come to his rescue. She had just chopped the zombie's arm off with a hand axe Alejandro had given her. The undead now snarled at Heather and would've taken a chunk out of her if it weren't for Duncan jamming his knife into the back of its head. Both of the winners Chris had taken the time to reveal the truth to had saved him. They'd believed him. He felt as if he'd finally confessed his sins and been shown the righteous path. It was the most soothing feeling he'd ever experienced.

"Thank you-" Chris smiled but it was the last time anyone would ever see his pearly whites. A gunshot rang out from the clearing and the bullet entered Chris' brain right through the frontal lobe. Chris was dead as soon as the bullet hit him and he collapsed in between Heather and Duncan, who both looked back to see what the heck was going on.

They saw it was none other than Blaineley who had fired the gun. The same pistol that Chris thought he'd lost in the woods earlier. The same pistol that Blaineley had stolen and refused to tell anyone about. She'd finally succeeded: she'd gotten her revenge against the horrid monster who'd defiled her image on national television. It felt exhilarating.

"Finally!" Blaineley screamed with delight as all the others just stared, open-mouthed, at her, "He got what was coming to him. Where's the witty retort Chris? Where's your awful buddy Chef now? Where's your life line to the producers? Oh that's right, _gone_! All gone!"

No one was moving, except for the zombies, while Blaineley spoke. The undead were much more drawn to the gun shot and were quickly abandoning pursuit of DJ's bag. But still, Blaineley kept on ranting.

"The rest of you should be _thanking_ me for killing that devil." Blaineley said, glancing about with a wicked glint in her eye, "I am the angel of death! I have saved everyone from the horrors of Chris McLean! And now, I shall reap my own reward! That yacht belongs to me!"

"You bitch!" Courtney was the first to snap out of her surprise, and she roared at Blaineley, "You're a murderer! And you just cost us everything!"

"Quiet Miss CIT," Blaineley spat at her and pointed the pistol at Courtney, "I have plenty more ammo in this baby."

Courtney tensed up, not daring to move for fear of being shot by this lunatic. Blaineley glanced wildly about the rest of the group, as if challenging them to defy her and face the music themselves. No one attempted to do so, though Noah did find the courage to speak.

"Um Blaineley, those zombies are getting closer." Noah said, meekly pointing over Blaineley's shoulder.

"Good," Blaineley said smugly as she slowly started backing towards the yacht, "you all can deal with them while I escape."

"You're seriously going to just leave us here? Man that is so not cool!" Geoff frowned at her but Blaineley just laughed at him.

"Sorry not sorry Geoff!" Blaineley said and took a very quick glance behind her where she saw some zombies had almost reached them, "Have fun with these though!"

Blaineley sidestepped and allowed the zombies to attack the rest of the group. This finally prompted everybody into action. In a panic, Geoff fired his gun into the head of the first zombie and it dropped at his feet. Another one was about to hit him while he reloaded, but DJ's powerful shotgun blasted it to bits. Geoff silently thanked his friend and prepared to continue the defense, making sure Bridgette was right behind him. He saw DJ was doing the same thing with Katie right behind him at arm's length.

"On your left." Noah directed from behind Alejandro, who listened to the bookworm and sliced his machete to the left, slicing off the head of the nearest zombie, "Two more coming on your right."

Alejandro fended off his two new attackers, while Noah continued assisting. Without a weapon, Noah had decided the strong, albeit unreliable, Spaniard was his best chance at surviving the encounter. Out of his peripheral view, Noah saw that Courtney was being cornered and backed into a tree as she tried to fight off the charge of three zombies by herself. He saw Trent pathetically stabbing at a zombie with nothing more than the kitchen knife Chef had given him. Katie and Bridgette were cowering behind DJ and Geoff respectively, who were both running low on ammo. Heather and Duncan had completely disappeared, as had Blaineley, from sight. Chris' body was now being eaten by a few zombies who hadn't bothered to join the fray just yet. Beth's zombified body had just risen up from the ground and had begun its journey towards the waiting feast.

"We aren't going to survive." Noah whimpered, finally showing his fear. Others were starting to drop morale as well and it was looking extremely grim for the whole group.

"Get away from me you nasty monsters!" Courtney shrieked as she fired yet another round into a zombie's head. She had killed a good amount of them, but more and more kept coming towards her. She still had another three to deal with and when she pulled the trigger the next time, she had an unfortunate realization: she was out of ammo.

She backed up but felt the rough bark of a tree grind against her back; there was nowhere else for her to go. She was nearly surrounded and practically defenseless. Tears threatened to spill but she refused to show any weakness, even in death. But even she couldn't help but cry out when the zombies finally lunged for her: it was her time of dying. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

 **Cliffhanger time. I thought leaving her fate unknown for a little while was great after already killing off multiple characters in this action-packed chapter. What's going to happen to Courtney? Where the heck did Duncan and Heather go? Is Blaineley seriously going to take off with the yacht by herself? And where is the other group? All the answers and more next time on Undead Drama!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris**

 **ALIVE: Gwen, Heather, Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Izzy, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Harold, Courtney, Cody, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Sierra, Blaineley and Chef Hatchet**


	7. Chapter 7: 25 of Us Went Into the Jungle

**Well here we go, the 7th chapter in a series I'm very much enjoying writing. I didn't think I was going to get this far tbh but hopefully I can just keep cranking 'em out. Also don't forget to vote in the poll on my profile for who you want to survive, it _may_ make a difference. And keep those reviews coming, I appreciate everyone's comments thus far!**

 **Anyways, prepare yourselves folks, this one's an action packed chapter filled! Picking up right where we left at the cliffhanger last time.**

 **WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character deaths.**

* * *

With her eyes closed tight, Courtney was unable to witness the act of bravery that saved her life. But she did hear parts of it: the gunshots going off were very close to her. The gunfire ended fairly quickly and then she heard bodies falling to the ground and some sort of a smashing sound.

When she finally dared open her eyes, Courtney saw all the zombies were no longer moving around her. Duncan the delinquent was kneeling on the ground, still pummeling one of the corpses' heads in with a rock. Finally he stopped and turned to look at her: she saw he was completely covered in blood.

"Th-thank you Duncan." Courtney managed to get out as he rose back to his feet, giving her a nod, "You actually saved my life."

"I'm not letting you die on me." Duncan managed to get out.

Alejandro and Noah had come over to them after the former dispatched of another couple of zombies. The Spaniard saw Duncan and looked very worried, "Where's Heather?"

Duncan shook his head, "I lost her in the swarm. I heard Courtney scream and came running immediately. I'm sorry dude."

Alejandro looked crestfallen, but Duncan turned to Noah and said, "Here, I picked this off the ground from our surprisingly friendly host after Blaineley killed him."

It was Chris' gun, the .357 magnum. Noah's eyes widened as he took the weapon, feeling much more relieved that he didn't have to rely purely on Alejandro to survive.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting such generosity from you of all people." Noah said in a sort of complimenting fashion, "We should get the others and then high tail it for the yacht before Mildred gets there."

* * *

Trent had long since given up trying to use his pathetic knife against the zombies. He had actually managed to kill a single zombie, but their sheer numbers were going to overwhelm him if he didn't do something fast. So he did: he bolted. He knew Blaineley was going to try making a run for the yacht and he hoped that would be the safest place for him to hide and then assist his friends in whatever way possible. He considered sacrificing himself for the others; after all the only person he truly cared about was already gone. They'd left Gwen behind at the cottage and he had low hopes that she was alive. But to be a sacrifice, first he had to be in a useful position to do such a thing.

"Follow me you undead creeps!" Trent hollered as loudly as possible over the gunfire, trying to get the attention of the zombies. He veered off away from the yacht, changing his initial plan, and continued shouting. It was starting to work; as his friends ran out of ammo, his voice became louder and louder. And many of the zombies were eager to catch the fleeing prey.

Trent lost track of where the rest of his friends were as he fled into the woods, hearing the footfalls and groans of hungry zombies behind him. He didn't have a clue where he was leading them exactly, but he just wanted to double back after getting a safe distance away. Perhaps this _was_ going to work.

The musician burst into a clearing in the woods and halted for a moment: which way was he going to go to double back? The zombies weren't that far behind, but then he realized his mistake: zombies were additionally coming at him from the direction he was _running_. His heart skipped a beat as he saw some of the singed zombies who had survived the explosion at Chris' cottage emerging from ahead of him. He was trapped.

* * *

DJ and Geoff had both run out of ammo by this point and were starting to panic. DJ was using his shotgun as a club, using his brute strength to smash through the heads of a few zombies. But the zombies seemed never ending, and the brick house was starting to get tired. Bridgette and Katie were still cowering behind the two guys, with the surfer girl closing her eyes and praying for this to all just be a nightmare that she would soon wake up from.

"Get ready to run," DJ said to the other three, "I'll hold them off while you three make a break back where we came from. Come up with a new plan to get off the island."

"What? No, we aren't leaving you behind." Katie insisted and took a deep breath, drawing her knife, "We're all here for each other, that's what you said."

DJ bowed his head in acknowledgement and continued beating zombie heads in. Bridgette seemed inspired by this comment and she opened her eyes, steeling herself to at least try and defend herself. Though Geoff had other ideas.

"Bridgette you at least _have_ to run. You're not just fighting for yourself." Geoff exclaimed, glancing down at Bridgette's stomach.

"No, I'm not leaving you here to die Geoff." Bridgette said, though she was visibly trembling as she held her knife and watched as an oncoming zombie came towards her.

But she wasn't going to have to kill it. There was a blur of purple and the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and the zombie collapsed. Bridgette blinked a few times and shook her head as if to clear it and clarify what the heck she just saw. It was Sierra wielding her machete: she _had_ survived after all.

"Bad zombie!" Sierra growled as she attacked another one, "I didn't write thirteen Geoff + Bridgette fan blogs just so you could ruin them!"

The super fan continued her assault, scaring just about everyone, and she turned out to be very, _very_ dangerous. They then heard gunshots from the tree line: Chef Hatchet, LeShawna and Izzy had come to save the day. Their barrage of bullets massacred the zombies nearby and the group was given a brief respite. Alejandro, Noah, Courtney and Duncan were seen rushing over to make sure their allies were alright.

"Dude you totally saved our bacon." Geoff thanked Chef, Sierra, LeShawna and Izzy, "Where are the others?"

"Gothie, Geek face and Geek face two went after Guitar Boy." Chef said and some took a moment or two to register who those people were.

"We have to go back and get them!" Sierra exclaimed, "Being apart from Cody for this long has been awful! And he might be in trouble!"

"You've been separated for three minutes, calm down girlie." Chef rolled his eyes, "But we do need to go back for 'em. Say, where's Chris?"

Most of them looked at their feet and didn't say anything as it dawned on Chef what had happened to his partner in crime on the show. Chef didn't say anything either, his face became impassive and he turned back to the woods.

"Let's go get the others. You all clear the path to the yacht and we'll all get the fuck off this death trap." Chef said icily as he strode off towards where there were shouts in the woods, LeShawna, Izzy and Sierra hot on his heels.

"Come on," Courtney said after a moment, getting everybody's attention, "the path to the docks is mostly cleared, which means Blaineley is probably already there. We can't let her leave with our only transport off the island, so let's move it!"

"Conserve what bullets any of you may have left." Alejandro warned as he joined Courtney at the front of the formation, "Try and use your knives or whatever else you have. We don't need to draw them towards us."

Almost as soon as the group began cleaving through the zombies right in front of the dock, they heard a gunshot. Alejandro frowned, "What did I just-"

"Get down!" Katie warned, pushing Alejandro down just as another gunshot went off and hit where Alejandro's face had been just seconds before.

They heard evil cackling and realized the shots were coming from the yacht: Blaineley was already aboard and was firing off rounds at the remaining campers running for the boat. The worst part of it all, was some of the zombies who were headed for the woods were turning around; which was precisely Blaineley's plan.

"This is what you deserve!" Blaineley cackled maniacally as she missed another shot, this one aiming for Courtney, "You should've listened to me, but now it's too late! I'm leaving the island and I'm making sure _none_ of you can follow me!"

"You're insane!" Geoff screamed and ducked as Blaineley's next shot targeted him, "Dang man, that's seriously lame."

"Oh I'm going to enjoy watching you die most of all Geoff, you too Bridgette." Blaineley taunted, "You made my life _hell_ on the Aftermath Show! And you Courtney, you were the person I was eliminated with on World Tour! All of you are going to pay for the torture I've been put through!"

"Violence isn't the answer!" DJ called desperately as the zombies started getting closer, "We understand you have demons Blaineley, but we can work this out! If you kill us all, there's no going back!"

Blaineley's eye twitched as she turned her gun on DJ, "I've already killed Chris, you think I'm stupid? I know you'll all kill me the first chance you get. But sadly for you, I'm the only one left with any ammo!"

Blaineley fired again and this time her shot made contact: she hit DJ in the shoulder and he cried out and keeled over. Katie gasped and immediately moved to help DJ while Blaineley laughed at them.

"This is the most fun I've-" Blaineley began but her eyes widened and as her next words were about to come out of her mouth, instead she spewed out blood. Everyone looked around at each other in shock: no one had fired a gun.

Up on the yacht, Blaineley felt the weapon embedded in her back and she slowly turned around to face her attacker.

"They call me the backstabber for a reason you bitch." Heather, Queen of Mean, snarled at her before withdrawing her hand axe and hitting Blaineley over the head with the weapon. The blonde TV host's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed on the ground, leaving everyone still on the dock in a stunned silence.

"Alright Heather!" Duncan cheered and realized what he'd said, "Wow, never thought those words would come out of my mouth."

"Heather quick, let us on the yacht!" Courtney shouted, indicating the railing blocking their entry.

Heather didn't hesitate to do so and just like that, everybody else was able to climb aboard except DJ and Katie. DJ's wound was severe and he was starting to bleed out. Katie was desperately trying to pull him onto the ship, but she just wasn't strong enough.

"Just go," DJ coughed out blood as he turned back and saw Beth the zombie leading the charge towards him and Katie, "please. I don't want to drag you down."

"Shut up," Katie snapped at him, "I told you already I'm _not_ leaving you behind."

Katie tapped into her adrenaline and used strength she didn't know she had to drag DJ the rest of the way up the board to the yacht. Noah started shooting the nearby zombies on the dock to try and slow them down by causing a pile up of bodies they had to get through.

"He's losing a lot of blood!" Katie choked up as DJ appeared to pass out, "Someone help him!"

"I have basic medical training." Bridgette told her, "We need to move him to a bed or something so I can have a look."

"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think the others are going to be able to get to the yacht like this." Noah said as he fired the .357 magnum once again.

"Close the entry, we need to get out of here." Heather commanded coldly.

"No way dude! Chef and the rest need our help!" Geoff protested.

"We're _all_ going to die if we stay here much longer. This is our chance, we need to take it." Heather reminded him.

"Whatever you do, decide soon cause I'm nearly out!" Noah shouted back.

* * *

The zombies inched ever closer to Trent as he backed into the middle of the clearing and saw zombies on all sides. He gulped, "Nice zombies? Friendly zombies? Not-going-to-eat-me zombies?"

All he received in response were snarls. He sighed and accepted he was finished; at least he helped the others.

"Trent!" He heard a familiar voice call out to him, "Climb into the tree, hurry!"

It was Gwen. His heart flooded with relief and joy, but he snapped back to reality and quickly did as he was told as his former girlfriend started shooting the zombies in the clearing. Trent was also able to see Harold firing off his rifle into the horde.

"We're going to lead them away before we run out of ammo!" Gwen hollered at Trent, "When you see your opening, run!"

"I don't want to leave you!" Trent called back.

"Too bad soldier!" They heard Chef's voice as he entered the fray with LeShawna, Izzy and Sierra, "That's an order! We'll double back and follow as quick as we can!"

"Quick Cody!" Sierra screamed as she grabbed hold of him, "Time to go!"

The zombies turned to follow after Sierra, Cody, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Chef and Gwen. Trent and Gwen locked eyes once and the musician mouthed, "I love you," to her before she turned and fled with the others. After only a little bit of time, the zombies had totally cleared out and Trent was home free to run back to the docks. He knew he wouldn't have much time, so he decided to heed Gwen and Chef's request and run as fast as his legs could carry him to where the others would hopefully still be waiting.

* * *

"How are we going to get back there?" LeShawna called out, taking some heavy breaths as she wasn't used to so much running, "The whole place is crawling with those suckers!"

"Fear not my chocolate goddess, I will protect you." Harold told her and she rolled her eyes, "We can simply-"

"Watch out string bean!" LeShawna warned him and just managed to shoot her pistol at the zombie that had just lunged for Harold. She put a bullet right through its head, one second before it would've sunk its teeth into the geek.

"This is insane!" Cody cowered from Sierra's back, "There's no way we're going to make it back, we have to try a new strategy!"

"Get to high ground!" Harold called back, "At least we'll be able to visualize our surroundings better. Come on!"

"Chef?" Izzy noticed the cook seemed to be in a faraway place, "Hatchet?"

 **flashback scene**

 _"We're pinned down!" The corporal reported to the walkie-talkie, "What are our orders commander?"_

 _Chef Hatchet and his crew were trapped in the jungle, not even being able to lift their heads up for fear of being shot. They had been raiding a terrorist cell, but they were jumped and forced to flee back to their base. Unfortunately, they'd been followed inside the treacherous jungle where the locals knew the area better than they did and there location was compromised._

 _"Commander are you serious? I've got twenty five men here and that's all you can do?" The corporal seemed angry._

 _"What's the issue corporal?" Chef chanced the question to his platoon leader._

 _The corporal threw down the walkie-talkie and sighed before addressing his troop, "Men, I hate to say this but we're on our own. The commander has abandoned us and says our only chance is to run for our fucking lives or die here in this trench."_

 _"Go out there? No way, we're just going to die!" Another man with bushy eyebrows exclaimed._

 _"It's either a chance to live or a guarantee to die by staying here." Chef said, gritting his teeth, "I saw we run."_

 _"If we can get to high ground, we can visualize our surroundings better." The corporal seemed in agreement with Chef, "Come on men, the fight isn't over yet!"_

 _And with that, the twenty five abandoned soldiers ran for their very lives, immediately getting shot at..._

 **back to present**

Chef blinked and tried to ignore how similar Harold's suggestion was to a ghost from his past and he ran with the kids up the long hill on the island that lead to the infamous Wawanakwa cliff. They soon reached the top of the cliff and quickly realized the problem: there was nowhere else to go from here but the water.

"Brilliant thinking Harold." LeShawna said sarcastically, "What the heck do we do now?"

"There's no guarantee we'll survive jumping." Cody gulped nervously as he peaked over the edge of the cliff and watched as a few pebbles took the _long_ fall down.

"We got more problems!" Gwen shrieked and pointed as the zombies slowly began making their way up the hill towards the cliff's edge. Gwen began shooting again, as did Izzy, Harold and LeShawna since they still had a few bullets left. Chef had run out of ammo so he started attacking with his cleaver he had taken from the kitchens, while Sierra fought with her katana.

"There's too many!" Harold shouted as he killed another but then found a problem, "And I'm out of ammo!"

Chef was in a daze again as he cleaved (literally) through another zombie and had another flashback.

 **flashback**

 _As soon as the troop exited the trench, about half of them were mowed down by machine gun fire. The other half managed to get into the cover of some trees, but they didn't dare stop moving. The corporal lead the way, running from tree to tree to limit the amount of time he was visible to any sniper or shooter in the trees. Chef followed his example, as did others, but some were unlucky. Two more fell to snipers in the trees, but they had no choice but to continue pressing on._

 _At some point, of the remaining ten soldiers, the group got split into two groups of five. Chef was still with the corporal and the five of them had regrouped and were discussing a strategy._

 _"Alright, we're nearly out." The corporal tried staying positive, "It's just over that ridge, so here's what I'm thinking. I'll draw out their fire and you guys-"_

 _The walkie-talkie crackled to life and the voice of the man with the bushy eyebrows was panicking, "Corporal there's too many of them! We're out of ammo, help us, ah!"_

 _They heard gunfire and then nothing but static from the walkie-talkie. They fell silent and the corporal took a deep breath._

 _"We're going to survive this, you hear me? We're not letting all of 'em die in vain. Got it?"_

 _"Sir yes sir!" They all saluted, though they all looked mortified. And then they continued the run for their very lives._

 **back to present**

"Twenty five of us went into the jungle that night...only five came back out." Chef's PTSD from his war days was hitting him hard and his focus was slipping. He looked around at the teenagers under his wing and tried his best to get it together: he _had_ to save these kids. He couldn't fail them like he'd failed his platoon.

"I'm out too sugar!" LeShawna cried, actually looking scared for the first time.

Cody realized that the line of defense his friends were maintaining wasn't quite enough. One of the zombies managed to slip past them and was headed straight for him: and he had no weapon at all but the knife. He quickly drew it, but the zombie jumped at him and the knife went skittering over the edge of the cliff and down into the murky waters below. Cody yelled in fear as he tried to wrestle the zombie off of him, but his strength just wasn't enough.

Luckily, his stalker's was. Sierra grabbed a hold of the zombie and threw it off of him. She then jumped on it and stabbed it through the head with the katana.

"Thanks Sierra, you're amazing!" Cody couldn't help but say it and Sierra blushed.

"Oh Cody, I love-" Sierra shrieked as she belt teeth digging into her neck. While distracted by Cody, and still kneeling on the ground after finishing off the last zombie, the sugar addicted super fan had left herself exposed. Cody looked on in horror as his protector shoved the zombie off of her, but the damage was done.

"This is it, the end!" LeShawna started to cry and it was easy to understand why she was despairing. The zombie horde was never ending and the group was trapped at the top of the cliff. Sierra had been bitten and Cody was in shock. Harold and Izzy had run out of ammo, Gwen was running low and Chef was in between reality and flashbacks. They'd all backed up to the edge of the cliff now and were facing a choice.

"We have to jump, but we need enough time to all make the jump!" Harold exclaimed, "My luscious LeShawna, I insist you go first."

LeShawna nodded and said, "Goodbye sweet world!"

She jumped and Sierra said, "I'll h-hold them all off. I'm dead anyway."

"What? No way!" Cody was kneeling next to her, ignoring the oncoming zombies.

"Cody," Sierra said weakly as Gwen could be seen jumping off the cliff in the background, "you must live, for us!"

And with that, Sierra mustered up what was left of her strength to attack the zombies and give the others enough time. Izzy and Harold had already jumped, leaving just Sierra, Cody and Chef on the cliff.

Chef gave Sierra a salute, "We appreciate your sacrifice soldier, I swear to you it will not be in vain."

Chef grabbed Cody while the nerd protested, "No! Sierra! Stop!"

But Chef had an iron clad grip on him and he jumped over the cliff with him in his arms, screaming, "Sierra!"

Sierra now stood alone on the cliff, stabbing a few of them, but once she saw Cody had made it over the cliff, she lowered her weapon and smiled, "At least he's safe."

And that was her last peaceful thought before she got torn apart, her katana clattering uselessly to the ground beside her.

* * *

"Señorita, it is time to go." Alejandro urged Courtney, who had insisted on taking the wheel of the yacht, "If we wait any longer, Heather is right; we will all perish here."

"I think he's right Court, we can't see the others and Noah's out of bullets." Duncan said and finally the CIT nodded her head in defeat.

"Alright," She said before calling out loudly, "I'm going to drive us out of here now!"

"Finally," Heather muttered and she looked down at Blaineley's unconscious body, "now to guarantee we make it..."

Heather picked up Blaineley, with Alejandro's assistance, and walked over to the railing of the yacht. Blaineley was just starting to wake up, but she couldn't do anything to prevent the pair of them from throwing her over board and back onto the dock. Heather had made sure to grab Blaineley's gun before hurling her off the ship.

Blaineley shook her head a couple of times but what she saw was her worst nightmare: Beth and Chris, both zombified, were reaching for her. And there was nowhere to run.

"You!" Blaineley hissed at Chris, who bit down on her, "I got my revenge, this can't be...no!"

Blaineley's screams died, much like she did as Chris got _his_ revenge against her. Courtney piloted the yacht away from the dock and started to steer the boat in the direction of the mainland.

"Wait!" They heard a distant voice from the island and Geoff peered out to see Trent, waving his arms frantically at them from the beach, "Come back!"

"Courtney!" Geoff called to her, "Trent's still alive, go to the beach and pick him up quick!"

Courtney bit her lip and weighed the risks. She eventually decided to turn back and go save him: enough people had been left behind today. Though she didn't dare go all the way to the beach, just in case some of the zombies got onto the boat.

"Swim out the rest of the way dude!" Geoff called as Courtney stopped the yacht about seventy feet out. Trent didn't need to be told twice as several zombies had started in his direction as he was the last living person on the island. In no time at all, Trent made it to the boat where Geoff threw down a rope for him to climb up.

Soaking wet, Trent was shaking and he said, "Thanks man."

"Only ten of us." Courtney heard Duncan saying from next to her, "Only ten of us made it off the island."

The CIT surveyed the survivors about her: DJ was unconscious and getting patched up by a very nervous Bridgette while Katie stood nearby trying not to throw up. It seemed that now that they were temporarily safe, the reality of everything they had just endured and experienced was catching up with them. Geoff was handing Trent a towel to dry off, but both gentlemen seemed extremely down; which was rare in Geoff's case. Courtney could see that Trent was crying and it didn't take long to realize why: Gwen hadn't made it. Courtney tried not to dwell on it either, though she knew she'd shed a tear about it later when no one was looking. She hoped Duncan wasn't too down about Gwen either, though she was pretty sure those two had called off their relationship.

Even Noah seemed to be thrown off his usual cynicism. Now that his services as the last one of them with a gun and bullets were no longer required, he promptly threw up over the side of the boat. Heather appeared to be doing the same as the horror at the fact that she realized she had _killed_ Blaineley hit her. Alejandro stood next to her with a comforting hand on her back, but even he had a worried look on his face.

"Listen up everyone," Courtney said, trying to muster up some confidence in her, "I know we're all scared and upset. And we don't know what we're going to find when we make it back to the mainland. We've lost many of our friends, and our leader, and we _will_ mourn them and avenge them. We will fight and survive for their sakes and for our own. We will _not_ give up!"

No one spoke in response, but her speech did seem to give them at least a little hope. There wasn't much else for her to say so she started up the engine again and drove for the mainland. All they could do now was survive and hold onto each other. For if they didn't, they might not even be able to hold onto their humanity. And like DJ said, once you go too far, there was no going back.

* * *

 **And there you have it, finally the survivors make it off the island. Granted it's only 10 of them, bet you expected more than that. Or is it only 10? Do you think any of Chef's group survived the fall? What did you guys think of the demise of Blaineley and Sierra? I know a lot of people wanted Blaineley to die for her sadistic actions previously. And what's going to happen to the survivors headed for the mainland? Find out next time on Undead Drama!**

 ** **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley****

 **ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Geoff, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet**


	8. Chapter 8: Who Can You Trust?

**Tbh I never expected to write this much, but I'm not going to question it and continue to pump out chapters. This one picks up with the survivors on the yacht where they start to really feel the weight and gravity of the situation they are in. Can they handle the horror, or will they too fall victim to the zombie apocalypse?**

 **WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character deaths.**

* * *

The yacht continued moving through the night, the ten survivors eager to leave the horrors of what happened on the island behind them. But as they sailed off into the unknown, there were more than a few who were still despairing over their futures.

DJ had finally fallen asleep on the bed he'd been given to rest on and attempt to recover from his wounds. Bridgette had managed to clean the wound as best she could by putting pressure on it; she prevented him from bleeding out. But, even with minimal medical knowledge, she knew this was only a temporary fix. DJ was going to need actual medicine or a doctor's aid if he was going to survive this.

"This is horrible," Bridgette muttered, referring to many different things, "if things are really so bad on the mainland, how are we going to get what we need? What if there are no doctors?"

"There most likely won't be." She was surprised to hear it was Noah who had spoken. Apparently the bookworm had just entered the room and he seemed to have a hardened facial expression, "Society is crumbling as we speak. I imagine the governments of the world aren't going to hold up much longer and soon it'll be complete chaos."

"But we don't know that for sure," Bridgette attempted playing devil's advocate, "it could've been contained-"

"You heard Topher on the news earlier," Noah reminded her, "the virus that makes these _zombies_ has gone global. There's nothing we can do to get rid of them. It's hopeless."

"And what of him?" Bridgette gestured to the sleeping DJ, "Are you going to tell me it's hopeless to think we can save him? Do you think we should just let him die? Cause I don't want to hear it Noah, I know you don't care about people but I do and-"

"Bridgette," Noah interrupted her, "I _do_ care about people, don't think I don't. If it's possible, I think we _should_ help DJ, it's just a question of whether or not it's possible."

Bridgette found herself feeling guilty. She'd always known Noah was a cynic and very sarcastic, but she'd always just assumed he was selfish and hated the rest of them. But she saw the look on his face: he was experiencing the same anguish as she was. It dawned on her that, like her life, his life had been dominated by this show and its cast for years. Watching the people she'd grown to love over the years was the most gruesome thing she'd ever witnessed; Noah was no different.

"I'm sorry." Bridgette said sincerely, "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just really worried about DJ. And everyone really."

"Don't worry about it, luckily I'm not an emotional person who cries whenever my feelings are hurt." Noah said and Bridgette supposed that classified as forgiveness, "If you want my help convincing Courtney to help DJ, you'll have it."

"You think we need to convince Courtney?" Bridgette raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"You haven't noticed?" Noah sounded slightly surprised, "With Chef gone, Courtney's taken charge of the group. With Duncan predictably worshipping her, Katie and Trent being too despondent to be of any use, and Alejandro and Heather being Alejandro and Heather, Courtney had it easy in terms of becoming the leader."

Bridgette was silent to think on this for a moment and Noah gave her one last thing to think about as he left, "Courtney hesitated to save Trent but when Heather made the yacht accessible, she instantly thought of her own survival. I can't say I blame her for that, but it makes you wonder a bit. Is she really trustworthy?"

Noah left her alone to collect her thoughts. She gave DJ an encouraging look and squeeze of the hand, even though he wasn't conscious, and murmured aloud, "I sure hope she is."

* * *

Katie had long since left DJ's bedside, per Bridgette's insistence, and she was currently leaning over the rail and looking out into the black night sky. With the wind howling and the temperature dropping, the former BFFFL was regretting her clothing choices and she stood shivering for her mistake. She made a mental note to mention finding more clothes for everyone to wear once they got to the mainland. They were all covered in someone's blood, be it their own or a zombies'. Katie still saw Sadie every time she closed her eyes, though now she saw something different in conjunction with that memory. Now she saw a flash of white light as a bullet left the cartridge of a gun; she saw Blaineley firing at DJ and she watched him fall to the ground into a pool of his own blood...

"Katie?" She jumped when she heard a voice from behind her, "What are you doing out here all alone? Shouldn't you be trying to rest?"

It was Alejandro, which surprised her; the Spaniard had never spoken directly to her ever. She supposed it wasn't really his fault given that they'd never competed together on the show, and she was in the peanut gallery during his debut season which took him all the way to the finale. She and Sadie had actually briefly had a fight over which of the two of them they thought Alejandro would like better, but their friendship eventually prevailed. Katie withheld tears at the memories.

"I can't sleep," Katie said honestly, "whenever I try, I can't stop thinking about everyone and those zombies..."

"I feel that señorita," Alejandro nodded in agreement as he too leaned against the railing, "I keep feeling a sense of uselessness. Like I could have done more to try and save more lives."

"There wasn't much else you could've done, and you did plenty." Katie reassured him, "I saw you protecting Noah, and I know you don't like him."

Alejandro scoffed, "I did, not that it matters much. It seems that no matter what I do, I can't earn the trust of anyone because of my actions in Total Drama World Tour. Noah despises me, Duncan and Courtney hardly acknowledge my existence, Geoff and Bridgette avoid me like the plague, and Heather has been...difficult."

Katie felt a twinge of sympathy and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry people treat you like that. I feel similar though; people always assume I'm just a dumb little girl who can't do anything because I didn't last very long on the show. And now everyone has their relationships or their best friends, and I have..."

She trailed off but now it was Alejandro's turn to comfort her, "If it makes you feel any better, I do not perceive you as worthless. Someone as beautiful and intelligent as you ought to make her opinions more well known to the group."

Katie couldn't help herself from blushing, "Thank you Alejandro, it does make me feel better."

"We're all we have at the end of the world," Alejandro said quietly, "we may as well be friends."

"Yeah," Katie smiled in spite of herself, "I'd like to be friends."

* * *

Trent watched from a pool chair as Geoff paced nervously about the deck. The party animal was scratching his head, as if pondering whether or not he should do something. Trent observed with little interest; all he could think about was Gwen. He couldn't help but feel like it was his fault his former girlfriend hadn't made it out. If they just hadn't gone back for him...Gwen along with all those she was with might've survived. They _should've_ survived. It wasn't even just Gwen's life he felt responsible for. There was Harold's, LeShawna's, Izzy's, Sierra's, Cody's and Chef's too.

"Seven people," Trent's voice cracked as he whispered to himself, "I have the blood of seven people on my hands."

Geoff didn't seem to hear him as he thought long and hard over whatever was torturing his mind, and finally he decided to say something to Trent, "Dude, can I tell you a secret?"

Trent raised an eyebrow, "Really man? After all the shit that's happened, you have drama or something?"

"This is important," Geoff insisted and the urgency in his eyes made Trent bow his head for him to continue, "Bridge is pregnant."

"What?" Trent exclaimed loudly and Geoff told him to keep it down, "Why didn't you tell anybody before now?"

"We were planning too!" Geoff explained, "Once we were all assembled for the competition, we were going to make an announcement. But obviously that never got to happen and well...here we are now."

"Do you realize what a nightmare this is?" Trent asked and Geoff nodded as if he knew all too well what the implications were, "How long has she been pregnant?"

"Not too long," Geoff admitted, "it's been about two months. That's why she's not really showing just yet, and why she's been able to fight through the pain to survive today. But soon, she isn't going to be able to fight or run or do anything like that. How am I supposed to protect her? Because without her...I don't know what I'll do."

Trent understood the predicament, and what it would mean to not only Geoff and Bridgette, but the group as a whole. If Bridgette became a liability, the more hardcore members of the group might stop protecting her in order to save themselves. Trent could easily see Heather or Alejandro doing something like that, as sickening as it sounded.

"I'll help you." Trent decided, "No matter what, when she needs help or whatever, I'll help you guys through it."

"Really?" Geoff sounded hopeful as he wrapped Trent in a bear hug, "Thanks dude, you're the best!"

"No problem," Trent's breath was ragged as the hug was unbearably tight, "you were the one who told Courtney to wait for me. I owe you my life man."

"Glad we can trust each other bro!" Geoff exclaimed, a bit of joy springing back into his step.

"What else are friends for?" Trent couldn't help himself but smile; the party boy's happiness was contagious. The deaths of all seven still weighed heavily on his mind, but for their sake and for his he knew he had to survive. And he had to make sure no one else lost their lives to those zombies; not on his watch.

* * *

Duncan had just finished relieving himself when he happened upon an open door on the yacht revealing one of the other bedrooms. He would've just continued on his way to reunite with Courtney at the driver's area, but he heard crying coming from inside. Curiosity won out and he pushed open the door slowly to see who it was.

It was Heather. Alone in the room, the queen bee was on her knees and trying to keep her crying quiet so as not to disturb others who might happen by. Naturally this wasn't the case with Duncan, but the delinquent found himself actually feeling sympathy for the queen of mean: a rare occurrence.

He sighed and approached, "Heather, you alright?"

Heather immediately stopped crying and shot to her feet to glare at him, "I'm _fine_! And I was _not_ crying, got it?"

"Whatever floats your boat," Duncan shrugged it off and Heather relaxed, "why are you not off with Alejerkdro?"

Heather wiped away any remnants of tears from her face and her frown returned, "I don't have to do anything with him, you do realize this right? And I don't really want to talk about him right now considering what's just happened."

Duncan nodded in understanding. Despite losing his feelings romantically for Gwen, he was doing his best to push the realization that he would never see her again from his brain. He was trying to hold it together, so he understood exactly where Heather was coming from: if she thought too much about who she truly cared for, she would have to fear losing them.

"Don't feel guilty about killing Blaineley though," Duncan told her, "Chef killed Justin earlier because he had too. You killed Blaineley because you had to. She was totally nuts and had already shot DJ; she would've taken the yacht and watched us all die. You actually saved lives doing what you did."

"I know," Heather sighed, "though I'm sure that's not how other people are going to view it. They'll all say 'oh Heather's just been waiting for the chance, now she has it' even though it isn't true. How am I ever going to regain trust?"

"Hey don't be like that," Duncan actually found himself disappointed that Heather would start being down on herself, "you were one of the smartest and most successful competitors in the history of Total Drama. You are crafty and clever and you're not as bad as most people seem to think. I understand the real you Heather, and you're a fighter. Don't get down in the dumps, stand up strong and fight through it. You'll be fine."

"Wow, who would have thought the ex convict used to be a motivational speaker." Heather mocked, though they were both smiling, and she actually gave him a hug, "Thanks Duncan, I needed a pep talk."

After a moment of hesitation, Duncan wrapped his arms around Heather as well, "Don't mention it, and I mean that. Don't go around telling people I was soft on you or Geoff will never let me hear the end of it."

Heather laughed, "I won't. Oh and Duncan, maybe you should give this pep talk to Courtney. As much as she and I have our _many_ differences, I think she might be in danger of falling off the deep end and you're the only person she remotely listens to. I'm sure she'd appreciate it coming from you over someone else."

"You think so?" Duncan couldn't keep the hopeful tone at bay, "You think Courtney cares?"

"Definitely," Heather told him confidently, "Courtney's crazy about you."

Duncan looked stoked and he had a renewed energy to him, "I was right, you really aren't selfish Heather. I like the new you: encouraging with a hint of that iconic sassy edge."

"What can I say, I'm a queen for a reason." Heather said with a flip of her hair, prompting Duncan to laugh, "Now go talk to Courtney, okay?"

"Will do." Duncan gave a mock salute before he marched himself out of the room and went off to find the CIT he so desperately cared for.

Heather waited for a few moments, as if expecting someone else to enter, and sure enough she was right. He stepped across the threshold after ensuring no one else was around, turning to close and lock the door behind him to give them privacy.

"How did it go with Duncan?" Alejandro asked as he closed the distance between him and Heather.

"My performance was flawless." Heather boasted, much to Alejandro's delight, "With my friendship with Duncan solidified, I have a direct line to Courtney's ear and to controlling the group as a whole."

Alejandro's smirk grew wider, "Excellent my little devil, most excellent."

He kissed her nose and she asked, "And what of your game with the wonder twin?"

"Katie? Child's play." Alejandro stated with a laugh, "Preying on weakness has always been a specialty, and now I have secured her friendship as well. If we continue to forge these friendships with the group..."

"It'll be that much easier to assume control at the right moment." Heather finished the statement, "The plan is going perfectly."

"I love it when we get to scheme together," Alejandro admitted and kissed her on the lips, "I've never felt a connection with anyone like I do with you."

"Just shut up," Heather said in between kisses and her hands moved to take his shirt off, "we're going all the way tonight."

"I've been waiting a long time to hear those words from you chica." Alejandro said with delight.

And while the two engaged in amorous activities, neither one told the other that they actually genuinely appreciated both Katie and Duncan's friendly words towards them respectively. Neither of them expressed their doubts about their plan, or that they weren't even sure they wanted the plan to succeed. After putting down Blaineley for trying to act selfishly, did they really want to act in a similar vein? Well, any conversations would have to wait till later for obvious reasons. Though unlike Geoff and Bridgette, at least they used protection.

* * *

Courtney had underestimated just how long it was going to take to reach the mainland by yacht. She cursed as she finally recalled that on the original season, all the contestants had simply been on the yacht at once and for drama's sake they'd have the boat drive away and "come back" with another contestant. This was to save time from the, apparently, ridiculously lengthy trip from the island to Canada's mainland.

"You do realize we could just sleep on the boat and call it quits for the night, right?" Noah asked as he approached.

"I think we'll have to," Courtney said with a deep sigh, "at least we won't be attacked by any more of those zombies if we do. Though it's not like anyone's going to be able to sleep."

"True enough," Noah agreed as he sat down in a deck chair nearby, "I imagine this may be some of our last night's alive."

"Do you have to be such a downer?" Courtney snapped, though inside she agreed with him.

"I'm a realist, there's a difference." Noah replied in his usual monotone sarcasm, "Sadly, in this set of circumstances, there's nothing to be happy about."

"We escaped the island with our lives, isn't that something to be happy about?" Courtney asked.

"Less than half of us did," Noah pointed out before narrowing his eyes, "and DJ is probably not going to last either. He needs medicine badly, as well as a professional if he's going to have a chance."

Courtney bit her lip, "I know. We'll do our best when we get to land to get DJ what he needs. I still can't believe Blaineley would shoot him..."

"That's one of the more believable things that's happened in the last twenty four hours." Noah stated, "But I'm holding you to your word Courtney; we _are_ helping DJ no matter what."

"I want to help everyone if I can," Courtney said sincerely, "there's just no guarantees anymore. Look what we've been reduced to in less than one day. If the mainland is even worse, how are any of us going to survive?"

Noah studied her curiously for a few moments and said nothing. Initially, he expected Courtney to just be power hungry and be thrilled at this opportunity to lead the group. But the worry and fear in her eyes made him realize she was just as conflicted as he was and she cared just as much. Maybe he shouldn't have judged her so quickly.

"We'll survive so long as we have a true leader," Noah finally said, "and I think you'll make an excellent commander."

"You think so?" Courtney smiled at him and he nodded, "Thanks Noah, I appreciate that."

"Get some sleep." Noah told her, "I'll keep watch and let you know if any trouble arises. We'll reach the mainland early tomorrow morning."

Courtney obliged to Noah's request and began walking towards one of the several rooms she could sleep in on the yacht. She passed by the first one and saw Bridgette was still tending to DJ, and Katie was also asleep with her head in her arms leaning against DJ; it seemed she had returned to his side after all. Courtney and Bridgette shared a brief moment of eye contact, but the surfer quickly looked away. Courtney didn't want to push it; the surfer was probably near her breaking point already.

She passed another door which was closed before she finally chose the third door as the room she wanted to be in for the night. She walked right in and turned to close the door, but she jumped when she saw the silhouette of someone behind the door.

She prepared to scream but the person spoke, "Relax princess, it's just me!"

"Duncan!" Courtney roared with both anger and relief, "I thought you were one of those zombies! Don't scare me like that!"

"I wasn't planning to, but I thought you weren't afraid of anything." Duncan said, a smirk forming on his lips.

"I'm not!" Courtney insisted and crossed her arms, "Jump scares do not count as being afraid of something."

"Nice to see you back in your usual argumentative mood." Duncan noted with a smile.

"I'm not argumentative!" Courtney exclaimed and Duncan gave her a look, "Ugh, you are such a jerk."

"Yeah, yeah, come here." Duncan said and before Courtney could react, he planted a kiss on her lips for the first time in a long time. He had forgotten just how great kissing her felt; it was as if all his problems melted away in that split second and it was just him and Courtney. Together.

Courtney pulled away, looking slightly shocked, though her face was clearly flushed. Duncan looked into her eyes and said softly, "You asked me earlier why I call you princess, and other nicknames, remember? Well, I never got to give you an answer so here it is. I care about you Courtney; I miss what we used to have. Every time you're in danger, my heart stops for a second as I realize that it could all be over. When you were surrounded by zombies today, the only thing I cared about was reaching you and making sure you were safe. I didn't even care if I died in the process."

"Duncan," Courtney said his name quietly, clearly touched by his sentiments, but he continued.

"Calling you those pet names reminds me of what it used to be like before I fucked up. I am _so_ sorry for what happened on Total Drama World Tour, and I hope you can forgive me for what happened eventually." Duncan actually allowed a few tears to spill onto his face.

Courtney moved her hand to wipe them away and she cupped his face with her other hand, "Listen to me Duncan: I forgive you. And I care about you too. When I lost sight of you and Heather earlier...I thought you were dead and I'd never get the chance to tell you how I feel."

Duncan wrapped her into his arms and she made no move to stop him. They hugged in a comfortable embrace for a while, neither needing to exchange any further words. They understood each other, they cared for each other. And maybe they even loved each other.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap on entry #8! I know there were no deaths this time around, but considering the amount of characters I've killed off in the last few chapters, I think it's alright that this one was a slow, character building chapter. Next chapter the survivors will reach the mainland and the action will pick up once again.**

 **Will DJ manage to survive his injuries? Are Heather and Alejandro actually going to go through with their potentially sinister plan? And how will Trent and Geoff help Bridgette with her pregnancy? Find out next time on Undead Drama!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley**

 **ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Geoff, DJ (injured), Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody and Chef Hatchet**


	9. Chapter 9: No Man On The Mainland

**Well it's been longer than expected but I've had one of the worst months of my life so I'm cutting myself a bit of slack. But I decided I couldn't just let this story die because I've been enjoying writing it as I hope you've all been enjoying reading it. This is one of the longer chapters I've written for this story so I hope you enjoy, this is sort of a transition chapter into the next major story arc. So sit back and enjoy.**

 **P.S. Don't forget to vote in the polls if you haven't already for who you want to live.**

 **WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activities and character deaths.**

* * *

 _"I care about you," Duncan was saying to Courtney, "I miss what we used to have."_

 _"I love you," Courtney wanted to say but in reality she said, "I care about you too."_

 _And then they came: undead forms of all those they'd lost. Owen, Sadie, Eva, Justin, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Blaineley, Izzy, Chef, Harold, Gwen, LeShawna, Cody. Courtney blinked in surprise and cried out, trying to drag Duncan with her to the safety of the yacht where the others were waiting. But as she and the delinquent ran, she realized she was surrounded: her allies from the boat were behind her and they'd been turned too._

 _"Courtney I want you to know that everything I-" Duncan began but Chris the zombie grabbed hold of him and bit his neck._

 _"Duncan!" Courtney called out his name and screamed over and over again till her mouth felt like sandpaper. She knew Duncan could no longer hear her; could no longer see her. Could never be with her again. As tears spilled down her face she realized she couldn't do this without him. And then the hands reached for her too..._

"Courtney!" Courtney heard a voice as she sat bolt upright in bed, screaming. She panicked for a moment as a hand touched her shoulder; she assumed she was in for a fight. But slowly she relaxed as she saw it was Noah who had attempted to gently shake her awake.

"We've docked." Noah told her simply, not commenting on how she'd been having a nightmare, "Thought I should let you know before we accidentally left you behind."

Courtney didn't snap at him for his sarcasm; in truth she was grateful he wasn't saying anything about her being afraid of something. She'd always carried herself with confidence, with pride and dignity. She dislikes, no, she _loathed_ letting people think she had fear at all. Because fear leads to weakness. And she couldn't afford to be weak. Especially now.

Courtney had been fortunate enough to keep hold of her own bag of personal belongings, so she sent Noah outside to give herself some privacy as she changed. As she opened the bag she saw something that didn't seem to belong. She reached her hand in and pulled out the object: it was a skull. The same skull Duncan had carved D + C on the back way back in Total Drama Island. Courtney bit her lip: had she really not taken this out of her bag? Surely she'd just overlooked it; it was small after all. She knew she cared about Duncan, even if she hated admitting it, but the skull was too much for her now that people were dying left and right. She pocketed it with plans to chuck it later when no one else was paying attention.

When she left the privacy of her room on the yacht, she went out onto the bow and found that Noah had assembled the rest of the group minus DJ. Bridgette had kept careful watch over him and said he was stable for now, but losing blood. If they had any aspirations of saving his life, they needed to act soon.

"So, uh, what exactly do we do now?" Trent broke the awkward silence with the question on everyone's mind. After their few hour respite from the onslaught of the undead, the survivors were unsure of what was next. But after a brief scanning of the dock they had just pulled up to and stopped at, something brought about further uneasiness.

"There's no one here at all." Courtney said quietly and the others saw she was correct: there wasn't a soul to be seen, though there were other boats. The whole place seemed as if it hadn't been touched, which was odd. Surely people would've thought to escape by boat...

"We need to find a pharmacy or a hospital to get help for DJ." Bridgette stated, bringing them back to the main focus, "I can't believe there's no one out here that can help. We're going to save him."

She said it so fiercely, as if daring anyone to challenge her claim. No one did, though it was clear that a few others disagreed that this was their main prerogative.

"We need to get more weapons." Heather reminded everyone, "Noah is the only one who even has any bullets left and aside from that we have my ax and Alejandro's machete plus a bunch of pathetic kitchen knives that are about as useful as toothpicks."

"Yeah and I only have ten left." Noah remarked, checking what was in the cartridge of his .357 as well as the few extras he had in his pocket.

"Ten bullets for ten people." Katie murmured and the group fell silent once again as they realized she was right.

"Let us not despair my friends, both Bridgette and Heather are correct." Alejandro said, trying to steer away from the direction Katie had taken the conversation, "We need to save poor DJ but we also need more weapons. I suggest splitting up."

"Dude no way!" Geoff protested immediately, irking Alejandro, "We should stick together! Plus who's to say we even need any more guns? From what I can tell, there's nothing at all around. Maybe they're all gone?"

"Dude don't let the rocks in your brain speak for you," Duncan snorted at Geoff, "I hate to agree with the snake, but Alejandro is right. We can easily split up and look nearby for weapons and medicine.

"Don't call him that," Katie snapped angrily at Duncan and Alejandro hid his smile, "it's not like you're any better."

"You want to start something with me, wonder twin?" Duncan snarled back, "Though I suppose I should come up with a different nickname for you since you don't have your twin any-"

"Enough!" Courtney shouted, kicking Duncan to make him stop before he said something he regretted, "Get it together people, this is not even close to over yet. So let's stop arguing and do something productive! Alejandro, Duncan, Heather and I will go search for weapons and see if we can find out what's going on around here. Bridgette, since you know more about medicine than anyone else, you pick your team and go. At least one person needs to stay behind with DJ. We meet back here in two hours."

No one wanted to challenge her right now; everyone seemed fairly satisfied with the plan. Bridgette nodded, accepting her temporary leadership position and selected Trent, Katie and Noah to go with her. Geoff wasn't a big fan of that idea.

"Come on babe, you really should have me come with you." Geoff was telling her, "I have to protect you!"

"Someone strong has to stay behind in case something happens to DJ." Bridgette explained sadly, "And I don't think any of the others have what it takes to...do what might be necessary."

Geoff hung his head: she _did_ trust him more than he'd even realized. He felt ashamed of himself but she quickly gave him a kiss and told him to be safe. He repeated the phrase to her and watched as everyone else in the group departed. Courtney and Bridgette's respective groups went in different directions and after a few minutes, Geoff could see them no more. He wondered briefly if they'd all make it back safe and sound, but the thought was too discouraging and he discarded it. May as well go check on DJ.

* * *

Duncan was experiencing a conflict of emotions. On the one hand, he was angry that Katie appeared to be growing closer to Alejandro and that Courtney had stopped him from shouting at her. But then on the other, he realized what a grave mistake that could've been: he could easily have alienated several people in the group with those harsh comments. There was a reason Courtney was the level headed one of the pair of them.

Still, he was rather irritated as he followed behind Alejandro and Heather, with Courtney off to his right. Duncan had already made up with Heather, and in truth he'd always been able to stand her more than most, but he still hadn't forgiven Alejandro. He considered the Spaniard to be the true villain here for more reasons than one.

"Why did you ask those two to come with us of all people?" Duncan whispered to Courtney as the foursome exited the marina and found themselves coming onto a city street.

"Truth?" Courtney asked and he nodded, "Because as much as I may not like them, who do you think are the most likely people to survive if we get into a confrontation?"

She had a point. It was pretty much common knowledge that Alejandro was one of the strongest, smartest and well put together competitors in Total Drama history. And Heather had plenty of skills of her own; she _was_ the most successful competitor of all time. She'd proven herself time and time again, even when the odds were stacked against her.

"Yeah, but can we trust him?" Duncan gestured at Alejandro, who at the moment seemed to be coming to a stop, causing this private conversation to end with Courtney giving an uncertain look the delinquent's way.

"Still no sign of anyone at all." Alejandro mused as he scanned the area. True to his word, no one was able to detect the presence of any living or undead being. They'd left the docks and were traveling down the side of a road and up ahead they could see a ramp leading onto the highway.

"Strange," Heather muttered, "that TV report we saw showed people in a panic, and now nothing? Ugh, what the hell is happening?"

"We should hit that highway." Duncan said quickly, "Even if we don't find people, we can get stuff from their cars. I can see several cars just stopped in the middle of the highway up ahead: people must've left in a hurry."

"Then isn't that a good reason _not_ to go over there?" Courtney asked but Duncan seemed to have his mind made up.

"Got to take risks sometimes, princess." Duncan said with a smirk as he now lead the way, "We might find food or weapons."

"Water and oil," Alejandro added, almost dreaming of the resources awaiting them, "we surely can't stay with that yacht for much longer. We'll need cars and thus gasoline."

"Maybe some new clothes?" Heather practically salivated at the thought, "I've never felt grungier in my life."

"Ah _chica_ you still look _magnifica_." Alejandro grinned at her, but she rolled her eyes and walked away from him, eager to get to her dreamed of outfits. Courtney walked at the back of the party, not looking forward to this. A tingle went up her spine; her intuition was telling her this was a bad idea. Something horrible was about to happen. But how could she tell the others that she simply felt something in her bones? They wouldn't listen to that. So she shrugged and kept going, but her alertness was peaked and she constantly whipped her head back and forth: nothing was going to sneak up on her.

"Holy shit," Duncan gaped as they exited the ramp and reached the highway, "it's fucking carnage."

Perhaps a weak choice of words, but an accurate statement all the same. There were hundreds of cars parked and piled up on the highway all around them. Some had clearly been in wrecks as bits of shattered glass lined the roads. There had evidently been causalities as well: charred bodies of what was assumed to be humans were decaying in pools of ash. Dried blood lined a few car windows, but it didn't seem that anything had been here within the last few days.

"Perfect," Duncan grinned, "let's get searching."

"Shouldn't we come up with an organized method of searching-" Courtney tried but realized her words were lost on him as Duncan already raced off ahead to try and find something of interest.

"Having trouble controlling your boy toy Courtney?" Heather couldn't help herself and Courtney failed to resist the bait.

"Shut up Heather, he is _not_ my boy toy. That's disgusting." Courtney insisted, "And besides, it's not like Alejandro is planning on helping you right now either."

Heather glanced over her shoulder and discovered she was right: Alejandro had also moved out of sight to search for water and siphon gas out of cars. The girls glared at each other: alone or together?

"You search nearby and I'll keep a lookout." Courtney decided, "I have excellent vision after all. At CIT training camp I had to learn how to spot poison from far away so as to help the campers avoid touching-"

"Ugh, fine!" Heather stamped her foot and moved away to shut out the barrage of useless information, "What are you, Harold?"

Neither girl said anything after that. As much as both of them had had their issues with him, they both realized they missed Harold. They missed all of them. Courtney climbed on top of a van so that she would have a better vantage point in case anything did make an appearance. She could just make out Duncan several yards away digging in the glove box of a car. He looked pretty pleased with whatever he'd found. Heather, of course, wasn't straying far and she was currently rummaging about in a suitcase and pulling out clothes from it: men's clothes. Heather threw them to the side in frustration and kept searching. But Courtney could not see Alejandro at all. Where had he gone?

 _"Can we trust him?"_ Duncan's words echoed in her brain and suddenly Courtney felt a lot more vulnerable. What if Alejandro really wasn't trustworthy? His motives had always been selfish before, was that still the case? And what of Heather? Courtney had always hated her for obvious reasons, but could she raven-haired schemer be after something more than surviving? Heather _was_ always the first to disagree with Courtney's plans...

She heard something that made her skin crawl. Goosebumps formed instantly as she slowly turned her head in the direction of the sound: it was the zombies. Her eyes widened as she took in their numbers: this wasn't just one or two that could be handled. This was a horde. Countless undead horrors were stumbling towards the unsuspecting seekers and only Courtney could warn them. But she knew calling out to Duncan would give them away: it was possible these zombies had not seen them at all. Frustration set in as she realized there was no easy way to get to Duncan to warn him: in fact when she looked back for him, he had disappeared from view as well.

With the boys gone, all she could see was Heather. And she hesitated. Heather currently had her hand in a car window as she struggled to manually unlock the door. It was clear she had no idea of the impending danger. Courtney knew if she didn't warn her, Heather was going to die. A battle raged inside Courtney's head and her heart: if Heather were in her shoes, what would she do? Courtney flashed back to all the times the pair of them had fought, argued, even eliminated each other on the show they'd spent their last few years on. Heather had never been very loyal or friendly. But then she remembered Blaineley. Blaineley killed Chris out of spite and revenge for something petty and unnecessary. She'd gone completely insane and was ready to leave all of them to die. But it had been Heather who took Blaineley out; it was Heather who let them all on the yacht.

She made up her mind. She slid off the roof of the van and quickly dashed over to Heather, who was just giving up on unlocking that car. She saw Courtney approaching fearfully and rapidly; Heather raised a brow.

"Zombies," Courtney barely breathed out, "lots of them incoming. Have you seen the boys?"

Heather shook her head, "I thought you were keeping an eye on everything."

"I was," Courtney said annoyed, not caring to admit she had let her mind wander, "well we can't stand around talking or we're dead. They're both smart, they'll figure out something. But we need to get out of here. Oh, we're never going to make it off the highway without being seen!"

Courtney looked ready to give up, but now it was Heather's turn to save her, "Come on Courtney, I have an idea."

Heather grabbed Courtney by the arm and made a gesture for her to lay flat on her stomach. Courtney looked at her bewildered, but when she saw Heather do the same and then roll so that she was underneath a car, she understood. Courtney quickly did the same and now the two girls were together under a car, breathing heavily. Then they saw the footsteps begin to pass by them. Not a moment too soon. The only question was, what were they going to do now?

* * *

Bridgette was having a tough time. She still hadn't told anybody about her pregnancy and now she'd forced Geoff into staying behind on the yacht. She didn't tell him the full truth: she didn't want him making a big fuss about protecting her and possibly having to sacrifice himself. The thought made her feel ill; she couldn't imagine life without Geoff.

The surfer girl did notice that Trent seemed to be giving her odd looks, but every time she caught him doing so he'd quickly turn away. Weird. She planned to ask him about it later, but she didn't want to push it with him right now. He hadn't exactly been the same since they got off the island and she could only imagine what it must be like to lose the person you love. Damn it, there was that thought again. She bit her lip and tried to think about something else.

Katie and Noah were leading the way into what looked like a pretty small, run-down town. From first glance, the place seemed deserted. But there was a sign for a CVS and the thought of possibly scrounging for medicines to help DJ were enough to propel them forward. And though Bridgette didn't say anything, she was considering getting a few things personal to her and the baby. She wasn't sure she could cope with raising a child in this brutal world if it were to remain like this. How could she possibly keep it safe when she couldn't protect her friends who'd already perished?

"Here we are," Noah's drawl snapped Bridgette back into reality as they found themselves standing in front of the CVS, "I can't believe we actually made it. It's like all the bad luck in the area was just taken by someone else. Seriously though, where on Earth is everyone?"

"The place already seemed like a ghost town." Katie said as if trying to convince herself that nothing was strange about it, "Maybe no one was really here to begin with?"

"Well let's not take too much time ogling, we promised we'd be back in two hours." Trent reminded everyone, "Noah, since you're the only one with a gun, I think you should go first, man."

"Fine, but you'd better all come in right behind me." Noah resigned himself to going first and he opened the door. Bridgette noted that Trent purposely lined himself up to go last, right behind her. Was he protecting her for some reason?

Noah and Katie pushed into the pharmacy first and discovered that they were not the first people to try and ransack the place. The insides of the store were a bit of a mess: shelves had been overturned, items had been picked clean, and a few things littered the tiled floor at their feet. But still, it was apparent that there were still a decent amount of things left untouched that they might be able to use.

"Okay everyone, start grabbing bags and stuffing them with whatever medicines you can find." Bridgette instructed, "Any first aid equipment is wanted too. I promise I'll sort through it all when we get back so don't worry if you don't know what a type of medicine does."

They all nodded in understanding and got to work. Noah decided that instead of going for meds first, he'd focus on gathering whatever food he could find. He was somewhat disappointed that all he was capable of retrieving were some bags of chips and extremely stale crackers, but that was the quality he expected from a CVS: pathetic and yet passable. He threw the snacks into his bag and began looking now for more important items.

Katie had selected a few containers of Advil, Pepto-Bismol and Tums, but nothing that was really going to help DJ. And with her limited medical knowledge, she ended up just putting whatever else she could find in her bag as Bridgette had suggested. After pouring through a few more shelves, she found herself looking at a box of condoms and she paused.

"Well I guess that'll never happen." Katie said sadly to herself, but Bridgette had been passing by and overheard.

"Cheer up Katie, we'll help DJ get better and then anything's possible." Bridgette said with a wink.

Katie's face turned beat red, "W-who said anything about DJ?"

Bridgette realized what she'd said and wanted to apologize, but Katie quickly hustled away from that section of the store to go do literally anything else and hide her embarrassment. Bridgette felt a bit sheepish but eventually shrugged: she still had supplies to gather. Luckily for her, she had actually found some equipment that might help her get that bullet out of DJ's body and she felt satisfied. Though there was one more thing she was interested in searching for.

Bridgette was in the birth control section now and she had to kneel to look at the shelf containing what she wanted. She held the small packet of pills in her hand and hesitated, considering her options: was this really what she wanted? No, no it wasn't. But was it what she felt she had to do? That she wasn't so sure of.

"Did you ask Geoff?" She nearly hit her head as she jumped at the sound of Trent's voice, "Was this both of your decisions?"

"Did you know?" Bridgette dodged the question, feeling slightly guilty: so that's why Trent was hanging around her.

He nodded, "Geoff confided in me and I'm glad he did. You don't need to carry that burden by yourself. But Bridgette, it's still a burden that can be carried. Heck, we don't even need to consider it a burden."

"Trent how do you expect me to be a _mother_ in a zombie infested world?" Bridgette asked tiredly as a wave of bottled up emotions hit her hard, "Geoff and I didn't even want the baby, it was an accident..."

"Think of it more as a pleasant miracle." Trent told her, realizing she was teetering dangerously on the verge of rash action, "At least give it a chance. There's no telling what might happen after all, good or bad. Surely something has to go well, right?"

Bridgette took a deep breath and nodded, "Alright, I'll wait. And just so you know, I do plan to tell the others. I just hadn't yet because I wasn't sure if I was going to...you know...keep it."

Trent nodded, "It's alright, no rush."

He gave her a quick hug, though he also didn't notice her slip the pills into his open bag during their embrace. She meant what she said, but she wanted the option. She felt every one deserved a choice.

"I'm thinking we should start thinking about heading back." Noah interrupted the hug as he and Katie rounded the corner, "I just came face to face with a zombie caught in the bathroom and that was enough of a close call for me to want to leave."

"Alright," Bridgette agreed and attempted a smile, "then let's get back and save DJ!"

* * *

A gun. Duncan had found a gun in the glove compartment of a car and he was ecstatic. What luck! He checked and saw there were already bullets locked and loaded. He noticed that one was missing from the cartridge and it wasn't much of a mystery to figure out where it went; he glanced at the dead body in the driver's seat with a gaping hole in his head. Duncan thanked him for his services.

" _Amigo!"_ Duncan heard Alejandro hiss at him from his right and the ex con turned in his direction, "Zombies!"

Alejandro had pointed in the direction of the girls and Duncan saw he was right: there were tons of shambling figures approaching them. Duncan panicked for a second: where were the girls then? Had Alejandro left them to die? No, no he wouldn't just leave Heather like that. Would he?

"We need to hide." Alejandro decided and as he glanced around, all he could think of was the trunk of the car next to them that was slightly ajar, "Get in."

"No way dude," Duncan protested, "after juvie, I ain't a big fan of tight and confined spaces."

"And I imagine you're less of a fan of being eaten alive." Alejandro replied and Duncan conceded the point. Still, he was less than thrilled that he had to climb into a rusty old trunk and almost completely shut the lid so the zombies couldn't get him or the womanizer. As zombie after zombie passed them by, Duncan began to regain his normal breathing: they weren't going to be discovered. Now he just hoped the girls were okay.

After what seemed like hours of agonizing waiting, the horde seemed to pass fully. Duncan wanted to leave instantly, but Alejandro halted that idea and simply explained there could be stragglers. Or some of the others may have turned around. So after what Duncan viewed as a pointless fifteen more minutes of waiting, he finally shoved the trunk cover up so that he could step back into the light of day. Alejandro followed him out after noting nothing came to attack Duncan right away.

"Now we find the girls." Duncan said with determination, but he was surprised when he received a response from someone that wasn't Alejandro.

"Oh we've found them for you." A surprisingly gruff female voice said from across the way, "Isn't that thoughtful of us?"

Duncan's fist clenched: whoever this girl was had just walked out with a very scared looking Courtney and Heather at gun point. Duncan had to confirm that she was a girl after looking at her a few more times. Her very short blonde hair and gray sports outfit almost made her appear to be a man.

Duncan took out the gun he'd found in the car and pointed it at her, "Let them go or you get to find out what a bullet tastes like."

"Duncan! She isn't alone!" Courtney hollered at him in warning, and that may be what prevented Duncan from doing anything foolish. As he heard the warning, he felt someone else approaching from behind and grab hold of him: two pairs of strong, muscular hands grappled him and forced him onto the ground. One of them grabbed the gun from him and he felt helpless. He noticed that next to him, Alejandro wasn't even attempting to fight off their attackers and he calmly held his hands up in the air at the request of a red-headed man.

"Nice work Brightning, Sergeant Leaky and Rat Boy." The girl said cheerfully, "Now we get to decide what to do with our new friends. Isn't that fun?"

* * *

 **And here they are, season 4 characters! 9 chapters in and I thought it was about time I brought them into the fold. Especially since there aren't that many originals left haha! As I said earlier, this is the beginning of a new story arc now that we're off the island for good and I think this one will be pretty intense as well.**

 **What's going to happen to those on the highway at the mercy of a new group? Is DJ going to survive his wounds? Will Bridgette decide to keep her baby? The answers to these questions and more next time on Undead Drama!**

 **Don't forget to drop some reviews, I love reading them!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley**

 **ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Geoff, DJ (injured), Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet**


	10. Chapter 10: El Diablo

**Only a week and a half between updates isn't too bad if I do say so myself, especially considering how busy I've been lately. Anywho, the story continues with more excitement in this chapter as the TDI gang finally encounters some of the TDROTI characters! And it's a super tense first meeting...**

 **Don't forget to vote in the poll for who you want to live, as well as leave a review even if it's a simple "hey I like the story" or "hey I fucking hate your story." I want to send a shout out to those of you who consistently review my story and to all who have reviewed in general! I love reading your comments and feedback, it's truly the greatest part about being a writer in my opinion.**

 **But enough of me blabbering, you guys want to see these overly dramatic characters killing zombies! So on with the show!**

 **WARNING: This story will contain scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character deaths.**

* * *

"Check their bags," The blonde female commanded to a fifth member of her group that Duncan and the others hadn't seen yet, "they might have found something useful in this pile of shit."

A very large, silent man gave an inaudible sigh and began to open Duncan's pack per his apparent leader's request. Duncan squirmed against his captors, but they held him with an iron clad grip and it was fruitless. God he wanted to kill them.

"Please just let us go!" Courtney was attempting to reason with the woman, "We don't mean anyone any harm. We were just looking for people and supplies-"

"That's great," The blonde girl interrupted, "but we don't have to believe anything that comes out of your mouth. You could be another gang of thieves, or worse. I don't really care to be honest. B, did you find anything good in there?"

The man apparently named B merely shrugged. The red-haired man snorted and said, "Figures, let's just kill 'em and be done with it."

"My friend I would not recommend that." Alejandro said in that silky smooth voice of his, "For we have something we can offer you."

"And what's that pretty boy?" He sneered back, "I don't need any hair spray thanks. Anne Maria might though but...never mind, we don't want that!"

"We have a boat," Alejandro replied simply, "a yacht to be specific. We'd be willing to give it to you in exchange for our lives. Fair enough?"

They paused for a moment until the blonde girl let out a bellowing laugh, "And what's stopping me from just blowing your brains out now and stealing your yacht along with the rest of your shit?"

"Because we have friends." Alejandro smirked viciously at her and her confidence faltered, "All of whom severely outnumber you and could mow you down as soon as you set foot on that dock without us."

Damn he's good. Duncan may hate him, but Alejandro clearly had the upper hand here because the other group couldn't prove or deny his claim. The Spaniard sure talked with a lot of confidence and bravado; it sounded believable to Duncan even though he knew it was a lie. Heather and Courtney seemed to have quickly caught onto the lie as well and were playing along by nodding in agreement.

"Jo, maybe we don't have to talk any of their stuff at all." One of the men holding Duncan told the blonde girl, finally putting a name to the face, "They didn't do anything wrong, just surviving."

"Yes listen to your friend with the unibrow," Heather told Jo, "what's the point in killing us and then being killed? Not very strategic if you ask me."

"They're just trying to weasel their way out of this!" The red-haired man exclaimed, seeming to see through the deception, "Brick's just being a wuss, I say kill the bitchy one first too just for the heck of it."

Heather glared back at him but Jo raised a hand for silence. She glanced around at each of her people, then at Alejandro. Then Heather, Courtney, Duncan. She made up her mind, "Fine, we'll escort you back to your boat as _our_ prisoners and then we'll explain to your friends what's going on. Got it, Scott?"

The red haired boy apparently named Scott muttered a few choice comments under his breath, but did not challenge Jo directly. The one called Brick seemed apprehensive about doing this at all, but he too kept his mouth shut for now.

"Uh oh!" The extremely muscular black athlete exclaimed as he pointed off in the distance, "I see sha-zombies coming our way!"

"Shut up Lightning and let's get moving then." Jo sneered at the dumb jock and she pushed Courtney in front of her, "Move it Loud-And-Proud!"

Courtney shot Alejandro a look as they started off; she hoped he knew what he was doing or this bluff may very well get them all killed. But at the very least they could stall for time, and being some of the smartest batch of contestants from the show, perhaps they'd be able to figure something out to weasel their way out of this mess.

* * *

"Thank God you're back!" Geoff exclaimed joyously as he picked Bridgette up and twirled her around the second she got back to the yacht. Bridgette seemed quite relieved to see he was alright too, though she felt a bit queasy after he spun her around a few times and requested he put her back down.

"Sorry 'bout that." Geoff said sheepishly, "I was just, like, super worried and that's not good for my usual mellow."

Bridgette chuckled a bit and ruffled his hair, "I'm happy we made it back in one piece and with some equipment that can help DJ. What about Courtney and the others? Are they back yet?"

Geoff shook his head, "Nah, but we haven't hit the two hour mark so let's give 'em some time. Just been me and my thoughts cause DJ isn't really conscious and all."

"If we could end this fascinating conversation and actually _help_ DJ now." Noah said scathingly, arms folded. Bridgette blushed, but acknowledged he was right and she moved off to find DJ with her bag of medical supplies. Noah and Katie went off with her, leaving just Geoff and Trent on the deck of the boat.

"So nothing happened at all?" Geoff inquired and the musician shrugged.

"Noah saw a zombie but didn't have to deal with it. All in all pretty uneventful, we didn't even see another living person." Trent recapped their brief excursion to the party boy.

"I was actually super stressed out." Geoff admitted, "But I was glad you were there to keep Bridge safe. I feel like I can trust you man. I know how you were with Gwen and-"

He faltered; Trent was giving him a pained look telling him to drop the subject. "Sorry dude, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," Trent cut him off, "I just don't want to think about her right now."

Geoff nodded in understanding and allowed Trent to go off by himself, to gather his own thoughts. Geoff couldn't even imagine the pain Trent felt; what would he do if he lost Bridgette? He couldn't even bear to think about it. He shook his head; when had he started becoming such a downer? He supposed an apocalypse could do that to a person.

* * *

Courtney's mind was racing as she lead the way, a gun from Jo at her back, towards the docks. It wasn't really that great a distance and no brilliant plans were coming to her. She'd briefly considered attempting to disarm Jo and use the weapon as leverage, but she'd dismissed the thought almost immediately. Even if she'd somehow take the gun from the arguably stronger girl, her allies would be dead before they could do anything and she'd be all alone. And the thought of Duncan dead...

She paused and shook her head, prompting another rude shove from Jo, "Hey, keep moving! I don't remember asking for a rest break."

"Leave her alone She-Male." Duncan snarled at her but Courtney gave him a warning look: this was not the time to start something.

"You sure we shouldn't just take them out?" Scott was snickering and he decided to kick Duncan in the back of his legs, bringing the delinquent to his knees, "Not so tough now are you?"

"That's enough soldier." Brick said with a hand on Scott's shoulder, much to the surprise of the other prisoners, "No need to kick a man while he's down."

"You are most noble my friend." Alejandro nodded respectfully at Brick, "I feel confident our deal can proceed without issue under your watchful eye."

Scott narrowed his eyes at Alejandro, but Brick gave a wry smile and said, "Personally I don't see the need for the hostility but-"

"Can it Brick-for-brains!" Jo hissed at him, "You know what happened last time we trusted outsiders!"

A dark look passed over Brick's face and he looked away solemnly. He picked no further argument with his leader and Jo, satisfied that that was the end of it, continued pushing Courtney onward.

In just a few more minutes, they could see the dock in the distance and were closing in on it rapidly. Courtney's heart was beating a thousand miles a minute; they were out of time. She felt a wave of shame wash over her: she had no plan. The notorious planner, thinker, strategist and leader had no plan to get her and the others out of this. What a failure she was. Maybe all those doubters were right about her: how could she ever have had a successful career if she couldn't pull through in times of crises? Tears were threatening to spill, but she held them back: she was _not_ going to cry as her final act on this Earth.

"Beverly, Lightning," Jo was speaking to two of her people, "just in case this is a trick, I want you to be looking up on the other boats docked here in case they're not on the one the Spaniard says they are."

"Such a wise, fearless leader you are." The silver-tongued devil smirked as B and Lightning obliged, "You and Brick truly make a wonderful team."

"Shut up," Jo said gruffly to him, "I don't want to hear it."

"I can see why you've survived this horrible endeavor." Alejandro continued while Courtney just watched on in shock that he was pushing it so much, "You remind me of a girl I knew briefly; Eva. Strong, independent, afraid of nothing, feared by all. The resemblance is uncanny."

"Is there a reason you're still talking?" Jo asked irritably, her finger tapping impatiently on the gun in her hand. The dock was easily in sight now.

"I just felt it befitting of a gentlemen such as myself to admire your successes." Alejandro said innocently, "Such a daring... _chica_."

"What are you-" Jo was unable to finish her sentence before Heather acted. In a blur of motion, Heather had rounded on the distracted Brick, kneed him in the crotch, and unsheathed Alejandro's machete from his belt. A bewildered Jo cocked her gun and pointed it at Courtney's head at the same time Heather raised the machete to Brick's neck. They were at a standstill.

"I knew we should've killed the bitchy one." Scott muttered as he looked between a smirking Heather and Alejandro.

"You're going to leave now." Heather explained to Jo, who was clenching her teeth, "You and all your little friends, or I'm going to cut this one's neck open and watch him bleed out."

"Then I'll blow out this one's brains." Jo gestured at Courtney with her gun, "She's your leader isn't she? Wouldn't that be a bigger blow to you?"

Courtney was still in a shocked amazement at how Alejandro and Heather had pulled off this stunt. While she'd been busy racking her brains for something to try, Alejandro and Heather had saved the day. Well, sort of. They'd provided them a chance. She had to commend them on their communication skills; she had no idea Alejandro was trying to distract Jo until he gave Heather a coded signal to attack with surprise. Well played. She saw Duncan giving them similar appraisal, Heather more so than Alejandro.

"You really want to chance it?" Heather taunted, "I'm feeling nice, so I'm offering you the chance to live. A lot more than what you were going to do."

"I made a deal with him," Jo jerked her head at Alejandro, "I said I'd let you live!"

"You were going to kill us and we all know it." Heather sneered at her, "It was written all over Brick's face."

Jo's eyes burned into Brick's, and he looked down, "Look Jo, I still don't think we need to have any conflict-"

"It's a little late for that!" Jo shouted, much more loudly than necessary and everyone tensed as her finger on the trigger twitched again. Duncan looked like he was ready to attack at a moment's notice, but he'd never reach her before she blew Courtney's brains out.

"Maybe their sha-right." Lightning said nervously, much to Jo's annoyance, "We could all walk away from this..."

"Perhaps you should listen to him." Alejandro nodded in the jock's direction, "And I believe your silent friend is thinking the same."

B nodded quietly, imploring Jo with his eyes: _it's not worth it_ they said. Jo bit her lip.

"Just shoot them for fuck's sake!" Scott shrieked as he pointed his own gun at Alejandro's head.

B suddenly began tugging on Lightning's football jersey, a fashion choice that bewildered some given their current predicament, but the jock finally turned his attention to the silent genius for a moment and saw what he was pointing at. Lightning's eyes widened as he cried out, "Undead coming sha-quickly!"

He was right: it seemed the horde from the highway had doubled back and were approaching the docks. They weren't particularly close just yet, but aside from the water there was no direction the survivors could go. They were trapped on the dock, together.

"We can't take them on just us!" Lightning exclaimed worriedly.

"Then let us help!" Courtney suddenly shouted, "If we all work together, we can take care of the threat and settle our differences that way!"

It was a long shot and she knew it, but there was no way she wasn't going to try and aid Alejandro and Heather in getting out of this situation. Scott seemed to be preparing to put a bullet in Alejandro's skull, but all the others in the group were nodding at Jo, agreeing with Courtney's idea.

"Fine!" Jo shouted impatiently, "I'll let her go, and you let Brick go. Okay?"

Heather nodded and Jo counted down, "3, 2, 1, release!"

To everyone except Scott's great relief, both Brick and Courtney were released by their respective captors. Courtney shakily stretched her muscles for a moment before saying, "Right, now let's kill some zombies!"

Brick handed Duncan and Courtney back their weapons, granted Courtney didn't have anything but an unloaded gun at this point. Duncan was very happy to get the gun back he'd found in that car, and he lined up next to B and got ready to shoot at the oncoming horde. Alejandro was smirking fiendishly at Scott, who begrudgingly lowered his own weapon and went to join Jo. Heather quickly took her hand ax back from Lightning and gave Alejandro his machete.

"What about those supposed friends you claimed to have?" Scott sneered at Alejandro, "We could use all the help we can get."

"I'll go inform them of the situation." Courtney decided, "I'm not going to be much use without any bullets. Besides, we may need to make a hasty retreat via the boat if things go south."

Courtney dashed off quickly for the yacht the others were aboard. Jo looked at her current crop of temporary allies and sighed: it was going to be rough, but they had to try. She yelled out a battle cry and started peppering the oncoming zombies with her automatic first, mowing down several with ease. Duncan, Scott and B joined her in the barrage of bullets, firing with their hand guns and taking out a few themselves. Heather, Lightning and Alejandro stood by, each with their melee weapons; ready to get involved when they were needed. Though it was notable that Heather didn't look at all excited about the idea of fighting up close and personal. She didn't have the upper body strength of Lightning or Alejandro. Alejandro noticed she looked nervous and he gave her a comforting smile: _run if you need to, I have no problem abandoning these people._

Heather took a deep breath: it was nearly time to betray people. Again. She almost hated how much she'd gotten used to doing things like that. Almost.

* * *

Geoff practically ran into Courtney as she sprinted onto the yacht. He just managed to steady the pair of them before either could fall, but there was no time for greetings.

"Dude, what the hell is happening?" Geoff shouted, "What's with all the shooting?"

"Zombie horde." Courtney answered breathlessly as Katie and Noah also came running, "We had a clash with another group of survivors, they're down there now. We're working together for the time being, but they were prepared to kill us."

"Where are Duncan, Alejandro and Heather?" Katie asked, looking over the railing of the boat to look at the zombies attacking those still on the dock.

"Fighting with the other group against the zombies." Courtney replied, "I don't think they're going to be able to kill them all. There are _hundreds_."

She pointed and the others quickly discovered she was right: the fighters on the ground had taken out the first wave for the most part with Alejandro and Lightning slicing the stragglers down, but another massive contingent of undead were shambling towards them. And it was clear they were going to run out of ammo before they made any significant dent in the zombie defenses.

"Then yell for the others and let's get the hell off this death trap!" Noah exclaimed as if this were the obvious plan of action, "No sense offering the dead free meals, even Heather: I doubt she has much meat on her bones."

"Not funny Noah," Katie frowned at him, "but do we get the other group on the boat too? I mean, Courtney did say they tried to kill them..."

"They aren't stupid, so if they see our people running they're going to do the same." Courtney stated with exasperation, "I guess we have no choice, Geoff go yell and get everyone to the ship. I need to prepare for departure."

The CIT ran off towards the captain's area while the party boy hollered over the side, "All dudes and dudettes listen up: WE NEED TO GET THE HECK OUT OF DODGE!"

* * *

Even over the deafening roar of the gunshots, Geoff's voice could be heard over the battlefield. This at least confirmed to Jo that there _were_ others in this group and that the greasy Spaniard hadn't _completely_ lied to her. Only mostly. Still, she had run out of ammo in her automatic and was now resorting to shooting her pistol which was only so effective. Her other friends weren't doing too well either; she knew running was the best option.

"Everyone!" Jo's bellow carried to all, "Retreat back to the yacht, we're sailing away from here!"

No one needed to be told twice, regardless of which group they were a part of. Duncan had long since run out of ammo and he wasn't keen on destroying his trusted knife fighting undead: stabbing these things in the head wasn't really that easy with such a small blade. He bolted for the yacht, the super speedy Lightning and Jo right behind him.

Alejandro had grabbed Heather's arm and was helping pull her along just behind the lead group of runners. Scott purposely placed his leg out in front of her so that Heather tripped and came crashing down on the dock with a yelp of surprise and pain. Alejandro stopped running to help his girlfriend back to her feet while Scott continued on his way, snickering mischievously.

B had seen Scott's antics and disapproved. He paused in his own fleeing and pulled out some sort of hand constructed gadget and pressed a button. A giant, clenched, boxing glove launched out of the device and hit Scott in the back, sending him tumbling to the ground as well. B grinned triumphantly, as if this were something he'd wanted to do for some time.

"Get up _chica_ ," Alejandro urged Heather, "they're closing in on us."

"I've twisted my ankle," Heather spat out angrily, "that son of a bitch! How am I supposed to run now?"

Alejandro didn't need to hear anymore. He picked Heather up in his arms and continued running, albeit at a much slower pace. Even with the extra difficulty of carrying someone else, Alejandro was able to outpace the zombies and he made it to the yacht. With help from Brick, he got Heather up without too much hassle before he jumped aboard too. That left just Scott and B on the dock, the former just now rising to his feet.

"You bastard!" Scott hissed venomously at B as the silent one got up alongside him and was getting nearer to safety, "You'll pay for that one!"

Scott grabbed a hold of B's foot and, surprised, B fell to the ground with a loud _thud_! Scott used his knife to quickly cut a deep gash on B's foot and B let out a whimper of pain, but could not say anything to call out for help from his allies.

"I've been waiting a long time for you to die, _Beverly_." Scott laughed cruelly as he rose to his feet and gave a quick glance over his shoulder, "Looks like your time of dying has arrived!"

Scott ran off and B looked helplessly at his feet; there was no way he was going to move. The zombies were on him in only a few seconds, ripping and tearing the large inventor to pieces. He couldn't even say last words as he was devoured on the dock of death.

Scott reached the boat and leapt on to it, just as Courtney had started pulling away from the side of the dock. Glancing back, Scott could see B had been completely swarmed and was being feasted on by the undead. Some of the zombies who had been closer to the yacht were actually falling off the dock and failing pathetically at swimming after them. Courtney was easily able to speed off and back out onto the open water where all was quiet in a matter of minutes.

"Well," Scott said with a smirk as he looked around, "could be worse I guess, but-"

There was a resounding _oof_ sound as Alejandro sucker punched Scott in the gut. The farm boy immediately curled up on the ground, grabbing at his stomach.

"Don't you _ever_ touch her again!" Alejandro threatened, a dangerous look in his eyes as he stared at the rather pitiful and weak form of Scott on the ground, "You _Diablo_!"

Scott looked around and saw that no one, not even his own people, was even considering standing up for him in this case; he was just lucky nobody witnessed what he did to B. He gulped; perhaps staying under everyone's radar for a little while would be a good idea. So he simply nodded and didn't look Alejandro in the eyes.

Courtney had stopped the boat after getting a decent distance away from the dock, and she'd come to gather everyone bar DJ and Bridgette, who was still tending to him, on the deck. There were some seriously distrustful and shift looks being exchanged between Jo's group and Courtney's group, but Courtney broke the tension by speaking.

"So obviously we have a new development." Courtney shot Jo a look before continuing, "The expedition for supplies had some...unexpected repercussions and now we have four new members. Jo, Scott, Lightning and Brick."

She introduced each of them with a point and each of the four gave different signs of greeting, or lack thereof. Jo simply scoffed and glared at anyone who dared look at her. Scott avoided eye contact with everyone, which was easy since no one wanted to look at him. Lightning was kissing his muscles and not noticing that Katie blushed just from looking at him. Brick was the only one to actually give a friendly greeting with his seemingly traditional salute and bow.

"We had a fifth," Brick said sullenly, "rest in peace soldier. Private B was an honorable man and I'd like to request a moment of silence."

No one thought about arguing that point. B hadn't done anything wrong to those who had recently been prisoners either so no one, aside from Scott, had anything sour to say about him. After a minute of silence, Brick nodded to signal the moment was passed.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, it appears we have to work together for the time being." Courtney said, a noticeable edge in her voice as she frowned at Scott and Jo.

"Why don't we just toss this one over board?" Heather asked, viciously staring at Scott, "He's dead weight and a total piece of shit."

"Hypocritical much?" Noah couldn't resist, but when Heather and Alejandro both frowned severely at him, he held up his hands, "Kidding...mostly."

"So do you have any sort of plan?" Jo was asking Courtney, "Or are you planning on just sailing around for the rest of your lives?"

"We were trying to find a doctor on the mainland to help our injured friend." Katie blurted out before Courtney could respond, "But we found medicine to help and Bridgette's pretty good with that sort of stuff."

"You have a doctor?" Brick asked, suddenly extremely interested in the conversation. Katie sort of shrugged, meaning that was debatable. Brick gave Jo a look and they appeared to have a silent conversation. Jo sighed and gestured for him to go on.

"We have some injured friends too," Brick admitted, "we were on a scouting mission of our own, scoping the surrounding area out for anything good. We had to after the last time we trusted people..."

"You mentioned that earlier amigo," Alejandro noted, "what happened exactly?"

"We don't need to go into specifics," Jo answered for Brick, "but we were attacked and some of our other people got hurt in the process. And our supplies took a heavy dent, so we needed to gather more. Now you understand why we weren't too interested in trusting you."

"Then let's just let bygones be bygones and move on." Trent said, offering peace. Brick saluted him and the pair shook hands.

"Wonderful," Noah muttered, "we don't exactly have enough food to feed all of us for any long duration of time."

"Then we'll return to our base of operations." Jo decided, though she narrowed her eyes, "We are making the decision to trust you guys, for now. If you come along and bring your sort-of-doctor to help our injured, we'll let you guys eat some of our rations and stay at our place. Fair enough?"

The original Total Drama survivors glanced around at each other: they all knew it was a sweet deal. Sure they might not be the most trustworthy of people, but they seemed desperate enough to have _anyone_ of medical training and they all knew they wouldn't be able to keep the yacht indefinitely. Once it ran out of fuel, the thing would be completely useless.

"You've got a deal." Courtney said, shaking Jo's hand, "Now tell me how to get to your base."

* * *

 **And there you have it, an intriguing first encounter with other survivors. I figured Jo and Scott in particular would be hostile towards any newcomers to their group, but I think the chapter panned out nicely and logically to reach the end goal which was to have them unite forces. And I think it's more interesting that there's a hostility in the air instead of everyone just instantly getting along. But let me know what you think: are you enjoying the tension?**

 **Also hopefully you're not all too angry about me killing off B. I wasn't originally going to, but I couldn't really think up a super interesting way to write him into this as a mainstay character. Dialogue is kind of my thing and since he doesn't talk...**

 **Still, I'm sure Scott's actions have inspired some hate for the season 4 villain. Do you guys want someone to wreak vengeance upon the dirty schemer? How will the original gang react when they are forced to integrate into a new group? And will their be a continuing struggle for who's actually in charge? Found out next time on Undead Drama!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B**

 **ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Geoff, DJ (injured/recovering), Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Lightning, Scott, Jo, Brick**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet**


	11. Chapter 11: A Tense Alliance

**It's been 2 weeks, but here we go with chapter 11! With this chapter I've hit over 50k words so that's a milestone I guess? I never thought I'd write more than 5 chapters of this so I'll give myself a little round of applause.**

 **Also I'd like to say thank you to those who have reviewed my story, especially those of you who consistently review. Reading your comments inspires me to further the story. I'd love if you keep leaving me feedback as it helps me improve and enjoy my writing even more.**

 **Additionally this chapter introduces some new characters (you can probably guess who based on recent events) so more characters are being added to the poll on my profile. Go to my profile and vote for those you wish to survive the story; trust me it has an impact. Ironically as of the last time I checked Gwen and Cody are at the top and they've been gone for some time now. Their fates are still unknown. Will that perhaps change soon?**

 **Anywho I'll stop babbling now and let's get on with what the readers actually care about: the new chapter. Enjoy!**

 **WARNING: This story may contain scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activities and character death.**

* * *

Bridgette cleaned off her bloodied hands with some of the lake water Trent and Geoff had gotten for their usage whilst on the boat and she smiled. At last, DJ had been helped. The procedure had been extremely difficult, strenuous and worrisome, but she'd pulled off the unthinkable. She somehow got the bullet out of his shoulder, a wound that seemed like it occurred eons ago, and now she just hoped he'd regain consciousness soon. She took a seat next to the cot DJ was laying atop to gather her thoughts. She'd been told by Katie, who had helped her during the procedure, that they'd picked up four new people; though she knew nothing about any of them. Meeting and dealing with new people was the last of her concerns at the moment.

There was a knock at the door and she looked up, expecting to see Katie or Geoff, and she was startled to see an unfamiliar boy with fiery red hair standing there. He seemed relatively poorly dressed, granted that wasn't all that important anymore, but he had a rather friendly smile on his face.

"Mind if I come on?" He asked innocently. Bridgette's body had tensed upon initially seeing him, but she relaxed and let him in. It appeared she would be meeting the new recruits sooner rather than later.

"I'm Scott," He said, offering his hand to the surfer girl which she accepted, "I thought I'd come introduce myself cause you weren't there to meet all of us."

"My apologies," Bridgette said sincerely, "I was tending to my injured friend. It seems all is well now, thank God."

"You have nothing to apologize for, it's cute that you care so much for your friends." Scott gave her an innocent kiss on her hand, causing her to blush against her will; he _was_ being very courteous.

"Such a gentlemen." Bridgette found herself giggling a little; as if she'd temporarily forgotten where she was or the horrors that were happening globally.

Scott gave a low bow, "I was raised a southern gentlemen ma'am, it's in my nature."

"Well I'm glad to have met you, I hope we can be friends." Bridgette said sincerely, not noticing the subtle smirk on Scott's bowed face.

"As do I, but I'm afraid I must go check on everyone else. You know, make sure they're all okay and such." Scott stated and Bridgette nodded, accepting this.

She gave him a smile as he left and she thought him over: he seemed like a nice enough boy. Obviously she wasn't interested in him romantically, she had Geoff, but she sort of liked his rugged charm. She hoped the others in his group were as nice as him.

"Bridgette?" She nearly jumped out of her skin when she realized DJ, who had apparently just sat up, was the one who had spoken to him, "Bridgette where are we?"

"Oh thank God you're alright!" Bridgette threw her arms around him and couldn't keep her tears at bay, "We were so worried about you!"

DJ winced when she came into contact with the recovering shoulder, but he tried to return the hug. Bridgette whispered to him, "We're on the yacht still, but Katie told me we're going somewhere else with some new people."

"New people?" DJ frowned, surprising Bridgette a little, "Do we know much about them?"

"Not really, but Courtney arranged some sort of a deal with their leader." Bridgette explained, "Apparently I'm going to help their wounded and they're going to give us a place to stay and food to eat."

"We can't trust them." DJ said firmly, "We shouldn't trust anyone we meet. Not after I saw what Blaineley could do, and she _knew_ us Bridge. Imagine what people who _don't_ know us will do if they're hostile?"

Bridgette certainly wasn't anticipating this anger from DJ, but she understood where it was coming from: he had been betrayed by someone he knew. Granted Blaineley was an awful human being, but she still knew him and his life. Bridgette bit her lip: perhaps he had a point after all? She'd have to do some digging into these new people.

Suddenly there was another knock at the door, revealing the person to be Katie and she said, "We're pulling alongside a shoreline now and we're about to get into lifeboats to row-"

She stopped when she realized DJ was awake and they locked eyes. For a moment, nobody moved, spoke, or even breathed. And then she was running across the room to give him a very soft hug, not wishing to damage him any further, and even a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm glad you didn't leave me." Katie whispered so that Bridgette couldn't hear her.

"I never will," DJ said comfortingly, "that's a promise."

* * *

The yacht had come to a stop as Bridgette and Katie helped DJ walk out to the deck. He was still in significant pain, but he seemed mostly functional, much to the girls' relief. Upon being seen, DJ was given a very warm greeting by his buddies Duncan and Geoff, as well as most of the others. Well, aside from the new people, but he didn't know them. DJ narrowed his eyes at each of them and chose not to speak to any of them.

"Alright everybody," Courtney addressed the now fourteen person group, "get into life boats and follow us to shore. We're going to have to abandon the yacht, it's just too inconvenient and running out of fuel anyways. So make sure you get whatever you need, we won't be coming back."

The group had already made sure they'd taken what few belongings they had and stuffed them into backpacks. Geoff swapped places with Bridgette, as he could help DJ a bit more with moving around and the surfer girl took charge of carrying the medical supplies she'd found earlier.

"It'll be dark in a few hours," Jo reminded everybody, and some noticed the look of fear that crept onto Brick's face at that, "so let's hurry up maggots."

"Maggots?" Trent whispered to Noah, "She reminds me a bit of Chef."

"She's about as pretty as Chef, and manly." Noah commented with a shrug as he climbed into one of the life boats.

Courtney, Duncan, Jo and Brick took the lead life boat, with life boat two consisting of Geoff, Bridgette, DJ, Katie and Scott, and life boat three carrying Heather, Trent, Alejandro, Lightning and Noah. All their supplies piled up next to them as each boat had two rowers. There was no conversation as they made their way across to the shore. It was an eerie silence accompanied by the nerve racking setting of the sun. The darkness was when the true fun began; for the undead.

In seemingly no time, all the boats had beached and people were getting out. Brick seemed to be continuously glancing skyward, looking more worried by the minute. Scott was volunteering to help Bridgette carry the medical supplies, which she allowed after he graciously requested. This interaction went completely unknown to Geoff, but Noah saw it and narrowed his eyes: he'd have to watch that one. From what he'd heard, he was less trustworthy than Alejandro and Heather.

"So how do we get to this base of yours?" Trent broke the silence as he asked Lightning the pertinent question.

"I don't know," Lightning said grumpily, arms crossed as if this were a touchy subject, "I wanted a _different_ base, but Jo said no."

"Oh get over it already Muscle Mind," Jo rolled her eyes, "as if we were going to hole up in a lighthouse just because it sounded similar to 'Lightning'."

"You're just jealous!" Lightning protested and turned away from her.

"Ladies if you're finished with your tea party, we are in the middle of something important!" Heather said impatiently, leaning on Alejandro a bit as she nursed her twisted ankle, "Now lead already!"

"Need I remind you that you're only coming with us out of the _kindness_ of my heart." Jo snarled right back, stepping up close to Heather.

"No, we're going with you because of a mutual agreement." Heather pointed out, "And some of us would like to get there _today_ instead of listening to you argue with someone who has half a brain cell, max."

"At least he can fight," Jo defended Lightning, shockingly, "what can you do, toothpick? Hope you annoy the zombies to death? It works on humans I suppose."

"That's enough soldiers!" Brick shouted, drawing everyone's attention just before Courtney opened her mouth to do the same, "We are about to be in impending darkness! We have to get control of the squadron and make it back to home base. We don't need any discourse in the group, so make up."

Heather and Jo both glared hatefully at each other before reluctantly shaking hands: it was clear this was not over. But for now they could move on; they had bigger fish to fry and that was finding their way back.

"Good, then let's move out troop!" Brick seemed happy enough as he lead the way. Courtney hurried to join him at the front.

"Nicely handled by the way," Courtney actually gave a genuine compliment as the group continued along the sidewalk of a road that Jo claimed would eventually lead them to their shelter, "you're not too bad at commanding. How come Jo's in charge and not you?"

"Well I appreciate your compliments ma'am." Brick saluted with a smile, "But Jo is a better all around leader than I am, I just advise her."

"Must be nice having such a competent advisor," Courtney grumbled, "I have to deal with people who may or may not be plotting my demise."

She couldn't help but look back at Heather and Alejandro, who were currently locked in a hushed, intense looking conversation. Brick saw who she was looking at but decided to comfort her on the subject, "I wouldn't worry about them. Granted I don't know them well, but when Jo had you at gun point and threatened you, they weren't willing to let you die. I think they're alright."

"You may be right," Courtney admitted, finding herself somewhat surprised at how willing she was to open herself up to Brick, "I mean, Heather did save me on the highway too. And Alejandro saved Duncan. It's just complicated I guess."

The two continued having a wonderful discussion, both enjoying talking to the other. Duncan narrowed his eyes at Brick from a little ways back: he didn't like the guy. He was just too positive, too lawful, and seemingly too perfect. And he definitely didn't like that Courtney was genuinely smiling while talking to him. Perhaps something would need to be done about him.

* * *

A few hours later, just as darkness had truly begun to envelope everything, the group arrived at Jo's base. And they were a bit surprised at what they saw: it was a hotel. They'd found themselves wandering into what seemed like a small town, with a few wrecked cars in the streets, but no sign of any people. But Jo and Brick had taken the reins and instructed everyone to follow them down a side street. After exiting that, they'd found a smallish, almost rundown hotel facing away from the main road. It was only a two story building, but the windows were all boarded up and no light escaped the building. It was clear someone had been using it as a hideout.

Jo knocked on the front door softly four times and then waited a second before knocking another two times. A few seconds later, the door was flung open from the inside and revealed a pretty blonde girl wearing a light pink top. It used to be prettier than it was now though once the group spotted the old blood stains: she'd seen a fight or two. She seemed surprised that there was a whole huge group of people, but Jo nodded at her: it was alright.

"Welcome back," The blonde girl said a bit uncertainly as she stared at different members of the other group, "picked up some new friends?"

Brick quickly introduced everyone, and the blonde girl actually gasped after a moment, "Oh my gosh, you guys are the Total Drama crew!"

Everybody blinked: after everything that had happened, they'd forgotten they were actually technically celebrities. A few smiled at that and now the girl was warming up rapidly to their arrival, "I'm Dakota and I've been a huge fan of the show! Always loved Lindsay and Heather, they're fashion was just so fetch!"

Heather actually smiled at her and nodded approvingly, "This girl knows what's up, nice to meet you."

Dakota beamed at her, but as she looked around and realized just how small their group was in comparison to how many people were on the show, her smile faded. "The others are all gone?"

There were some solemn nods. Dakota didn't ask more as the harsh reality set back in, the momentary respite had passed. She composed herself and said, "Alright, well come on in I guess. I can give you a tour."

"Actually is there somewhere I could take my friend to lay down?" Katie asked, referring to DJ, "He's still recovering and all."

"I'll show you where to go," Scott assured her, smiling warmly at both her and Bridgette, "come on."

"I'm going to make the rounds and tell everybody what's happened." Brick volunteered and Jo nodded approvingly, giving him the all clear to do so.

Dakota led the majority of the group who wasn't splitting off to do other things through the lobby of the hotel. Lightning had closed and locked the door behind everyone after they'd entered and was temporarily taking Dakota's place on guard; just in case. They seemed to have a solid system set up so that they were never taken by surprise.

"So we've basically turned the first floor of the building into a survival base." Dakota was explaining to the Total Drama Island crew, "The main lobby is still just a place for us to sit and talk, though also be on watch from intruders. The former pool room is now used to store weapons, as you can see here."

The group paused and looked through the glass door where they could see a couple of tables with weapons piled on top of it. Some of their mouths were hanging open in shock: how on Earth had these people stock piled _that_ many guns? Assuming this partnership worked out, the group would easily be able to get new guns and ammo. Courtney made a mental note of that: perhaps extending this alliance to a more permanent status would be the best strategy.

"May we go in?" Trent was asking, but Jo shook her head fiercely.

"No," She stated, arms crossed, "we barely know you yet and we've already extended a fragile offer at best. And this door is locked and guarded from the inside at all times so don't even think about trying to break in."

Jo was frowning mainly at Heather, who was choosing to ignore her. But now that she'd mentioned it, some of them spotted movement from inside the room and could now see someone had come into full view to investigate what was happening. It was a pretty girl with very poufy hair, though her tan was a bit much. They could see her spraying her voluminous hair with hair spray on the other side of the door; she clearly wasn't doing a whole lot of "defending". Jo sighed and pulled a key out of her pocket and inserted it into the lock. The door swung open and the tanned girl stepped out.

"Anne Maria," Jo greeted a bit angrily, "perhaps you should switch out with someone on guard duty and meet the newbies."

"Mkay," Anne Maria shrugged and continued spraying her hair, "as long as nobody touches the pouf we ain't gonna have problems, kay?"

Her next blast of the hair spray made Courtney start coughing, "Ugh, can you stop doing that please?"

"My hair has to look its best!" Anne Maria sounded offended and actually appalled at her request.

"You do realize we're facing the apocalypse right?" Courtney asked her, annoyance obvious in her tone, "And you're worried about your looks?"

"Honey it's clear you didn't worry about your looks before or after the dead rose up." Anne Maria frowned at her and the tension was clearly growing in the room, "Now why don't you fuck off."

"You just made a mistake." Duncan growled as he stepped towards her, but Trent got in between them to stop anything from starting.

"Come on guys, everyone's just nervous." Trent tried playing peacekeeper, "We have to work together and we can't afford getting into little petty spats."

"Elvis is right," Jo surprisingly came to his aid, "now Poufy just go get something to eat and get over it. Courtney, try not to hate everybody in my group please."

Anne Maria did not seem to like the ganging up on her, but she stalked off without another word. Jo rolled her eyes at her retreating form and actually muttered to Courtney, "I don't blame you for that one, she's annoying as fuck. Only reason she's still alive is because Brick saved her. Soft-hearted fool."

Courtney actually found it admirable that Brick was willing to save anybody, but realized voicing that wouldn't gain her any points with Jo so she kept her mouth shut and nodded. Dakota cleared her throat, composing herself after that awkward encounter, and motioned for everyone to follow her on the continuation of the tour.

Dakota was explaining that the former dining area was now the medical area, with some of the tables having been deconstructed and used to board up the windows. Apparently this had been B's idea and Dakota looked saddened as she realized he hadn't made it back from their excursion. Dakota was leading them into the medical area now and the survivors of the island were now faced with several new members of the new group: some laying down on beds that had been moved from other rooms, some tending to them.

Bridgette and Katie were spotted off to the side laying DJ down on one of the beds, though he seemed mostly alright they wanted to make sure. Scott was next to them, offering Bridgette as much help as he could muster up. Noah narrowed his eyes once again: slippery as an eel that one.

One of the new people tending to some laying down had turned her head towards the survivors and was now approaching. She was a very petite girl with silvery blonde hair and a very calming demeanor. She practically glided over to them, unnerving some in the group, and she halted in front of Jo.

"Your aura is sad, commander." She said serenely, "I sense B is no longer with us, is this correct?"

Jo nodded, "Afraid so Dawn, but we'll just have to make due with his absence. I know you were friends with him, so I apologize."

The others were mildly surprised at how nice and sympathetic Jo was in this moment. Jo seemed to realize this, however, and she quickly reverted back to her typical overbearing self. The girl apparently known as Dawn looked about the group and appraised each one of them.

"I sense many conflicting auras in this group, but many orange-red colors that signal confidence in your ability to survive." Dawn smiled, "Welcome to your new home, I do hope we can be friends."

"An aura reader huh?" Noah seemed unimpressed, "Jo you didn't tell us you were running an insane asylum what with miss aura whisperer and the tan-obsessed hair monster. You should've told us what we were getting ourselves into."

Dawn frowned at him and said, "All I see when gazing upon you is a cloud of gray and darkness."

"Fascinating," Noah said insincerely, "so what does that even mean? Let me guess, I'm a horrible negative person with a cynical view on life?"

"It means you refuse to trust anyone or anything, you have issues from your past that you won't let go, and your heart suffers from this negative energy." Dawn said bluntly and Noah was actually slightly taken aback, though he recovered quickly.

"Ugh, freak." Heather was muttering to Alejandro as she continued using him to keep herself upright, though she was eyeing the beds longingly, "Could you set me down on one of those? I wouldn't mind sleeping for the rest of today. I never thought I could get this tired, even during that Awake-o-thon bullshit from season 1."

While Dawn and Noah had progressed to giving each other the silent treatment, Alejandro gently set Heather down on the bed next to DJ. The Spaniard gave Scott a nasty look, though the dirt farmer purposely didn't make eye contact with him or Heather. Instead he made a point of putting a "friendly" arm around Bridgette and making her actually laugh about something.

Alejandro glanced at Geoff, who was too oblivious to notice, and he sighed in annoyance, "That cowboy is so incompetent he can't even see what Scott is doing right under his nose. I wouldn't put anything past that schemer, especially with Bridgette. She's fairly easy to manipulate."

"You would know wouldn't you." Heather sneered at him and suddenly Alejandro was embarrassed as he remembered _his_ experience with Bridgette.

"All in the past my dear," Alejandro reassured her smoothly, "I only have eyes for you."

"Whatever, I want to sleep." Heather said, turning away from him. He sighed but allowed her what she wanted.

Meanwhile, Dakota had stopped her little tour as she came to a stop next to one of the beds where an overweight nerdy looking guy was laying on top of. She squeezed his hand and said, "Hey Sam, how you doing? Feeling any better?"

"Dakota," Sam said her name and smiled weakly before coughing, "I'm still feeling really, ugh, sick. And the technology withdrawal isn't helping."

"Now Sam you know we can't use the generator to power your game guy." Dakota chided lightly, "I already tried asking if we could do it for my phone but the others said no."

"Jo!" Another girl in the room came sprinting over with desperation in her eyes, "Jo please tell me you found some medicine for Mike! He's getting worse!"

"Sorry Red, didn't find much." Jo told her and the girl with red pigtails started to cry softly. She didn't even seem to register that there were ten new people in the building.

"What happened to her?" Trent asked, somewhat concerned as the red haired girl went back to sitting next to a seemingly asleep boy with spiky hair.

"That's Zoey," Dawn said the name fondly, "she's a very nice girl, but she's been through a lot."

"We've _all_ been through a lot." Noah pointed out but realized Dawn was giving him the stink eye so he went back to sulking.

"Her boyfriend is the one on the bed, his name is Mike." Dawn explained and a look came over her, "I've never been sure what to make of him...but he, Sam and another in our group named Staci have become very ill recently. This is why I assume Bridgette, the one with the wonderfully green aura, is going to help us."

Those still focused on what Dawn was saying saw Zoey crying softly into the arm of the sleeping Mike, but they also saw the last person in the medical area who they had to assume was the aforementioned Staci. She was an overweight, relatively unattractive girl, with a hairdo that everyone was fairly certain Anne Maria would scoff at. She wore a strange pink outfit and was currently awake and looking a bit panicked.

"Oh! My great-great-great-great-great granduncle warned everyone this would happen!" Staci proclaimed, "He knew the world would end one day! And no one listened! And now I'm going to perish too!"

"Staci relax and breath." Dawn said calmly as she floated over to her to console, "You're having a panic attack; the best way to relieve it is to take deep breaths. I'll do it with you, alright? With me now, breath in and breath out. In and out."

This seemed to have the desired effect on her, and Staci was able to follow along with Dawn's breathing exercise and get herself together. Bridgette actually looked on from where she was in the room and found herself notably impressed; Dawn happened to glance up and fire her a warm smile. Bridgette returned the gesture: she hoped to talk to her soon.

"Good work Fairy Girl," Jo patted Dawn on the back as Staci settled back into a more restful state, "I want you and that surfer girl to be watching over the sick. Get to know her and see what all you can learn about this group."

Dawn nodded in understanding, happy enough to get to spend her time with Bridgette. Jo went back to barking at Dakota so the blonde beauty could get back to leading the tour. Dakota apologetically left Sam and she took the few remaining survivors who weren't' staying in the medical area towards the stairs.

"Wait, what's in there?" Duncan asked suspiciously, pointing at the front desk in the lobby and primarily at the door that led into the former manager area.

"We just store food in there," Jo said quickly, eager to rush them all up the stairs, "don't worry about it punk."

Duncan didn't really believe her, but he knew everyone was walking on thin ice already and no one wanted this to turn into a shootout so he kept silent. He tried to catch Courtney's eye but the CIT seemed busy talking to Trent about something. Duncan sighed angrily but followed Dakota up the stairs, noting that Jo was not going with them for some reason.

"So upstairs is pretty simple," Dakota said, stopping once she reached the top, "each room is still a bedroom and we've all been sleeping in there. There's still plenty of rooms for you all to claim, as long as some of you don't mind being in the same room as each other."

"Well we know Geoff and Bridgette will jump on that idea," Noah said, mostly disinterested, "maybe Alejandro and Heather too."

Trent noticed Duncan looking questioningly at Courtney, who again seemed to be oblivious to him. The musician chose not to say anything about it as Dakota lead them down the hallway for each of them to claim a room.

As Noah predicted, Geoff and Alejandro each claimed a room and told Dakota that their respective love interests would be staying with them. Noah himself claimed a room all to himself, much to his own personal relief. He also made a point of rooming as far away from Geoff and Bridgette as possible: he wanted to sleep at night and not listen to their...amorous activities. Courtney took a pleasant looking room and told Dakota she would room with Katie, much to Duncan's surprise. This left Duncan and Trent, and the latter took pity on Duncan and proclaimed they could be roommates for the time being.

"Alright great!" Dakota exclaimed, seeming somewhat genuine about her excitement, "I'm glad I got the chance to meet all of you, even if it is under these circumstances. I think we'll all get along, you know after the frosty greetings blow over."

"Such a wise and beautiful girl you are," Alejandro flirted, a bit mischievously, "I believe you are correct."

"I watched the show remember," Dakota reminded with a bit of a frown, "I know you only actually like Heather so don't be flirting with me."

"Ha, busted bro." Trent actually laughed and gave Dakota an approving look. Alejandro shrugged in a slightly humbled way before he took his leave and went to check out his room a bit further.

"Anyways get some rest everybody," Courtney called before she closed the door to her own room, "tomorrow we'll sit down with everybody and come up with a more established plan of action."

And with that, she closed her door and prompted everyone to follow her orders. Once alone, Courtney let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and she let herself mull over the situation. Zombies had risen up from the ground not long ago and already this was what humanity had been reduced to. She and some of the others from the reality show that had become her entire life were forced into living with some questionable characters in a boarded up hotel. And only under a rocky alliance that could shatter at any minute. Was this really a good idea? She wasn't so sure; she'd need to start planning and getting some of the others to weigh in. Perhaps Noah and Alejandro: they were schemers. They'd probably have a good read on the situation. She sighed and searched the room briefly for something to write down on and to her luck she found a pad of paper and a pen. She hurriedly picked it up and started scrawling some ideas down: at least _some_ things hadn't changed.

* * *

Jo had quickly unlocked the door to the former manager's office, entered, and closed it behind her. She was fairly certain none of the new members had seen her so she let out a relieved sigh. She walked across to the other adjoining door in the room and opened it, startling the person on the other side.

"Great gargoyles you scared me Jo!" A short black boy with glasses squeaked and clutched at his chest, "A little warning next time please?"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch Cameron, everything's fine." Jo snorted before dropping the facade, "We got ten new recruits today, not all of whom are trustworthy. We didn't mentioned to them your little, uh, _experiments_."

"Good, we should keep it that way." Cameron looked a little nervous at the mention of new people, "They wouldn't understand why we're doing this."

"So have you made any progress?" Jo asked, glancing over to the cages that were hardly visible across the room.

"A little," Cameron admitted, "though I wish I'd made more. It's practically impossible with such little materials at my disposal."

The pair walked over to the cage and a gnarled hand shout out, grabbing at the metal bars. The creature pressed its face up against the side of the cage, confirming it was one of the undead. Cameron and Jo both seemed unfazed as the bubble boy reached for a clipboard of notes to check over.

"I think it may be hopeless," Cameron said with a sigh, glancing up from his notes, "there's just no way to confirm whether or not this virus was manufactured in a lab or by some natural phenomenon-"

"If anyone can do it, you can Brainiac." Jo interrupted, "Besides, that isn't the only task you have. You remember your _main_ job right?"

Cameron's face darkened a bit but he nodded, "Of course I remember, how could I forget? Those _monsters_ are going to pay for what they did!"

"That's the spirit," Jo said, as she walked back to the door to leave, "keep me and only me posted on any progress you've made. No need to involve anyone else in this if we can avoid it, okay?"

"You got it boss." Cameron said, prompting Jo to leave him alone with just the caged zombie. He glanced at it once again, studying it for a moment, and finally he sighed, "I wonder what it must be like to have no desire but to eat. I'd ask but I know you can't tell me; something that's very frustrating I might add."

Needless to say, the creature didn't respond with anything more than an attempt at extending its hand further out of the cage. Cameron shook his head, "Oh well, I have more than one problem to solve. Even in the apocalypse I'm given an abnormal role; go figure. Now let's find those pieces of garbage."

* * *

 **And that's that, my longest chapter so far! Interestingly enough it was one of the least exciting, but I thought a chapter introducing the rest of the season 4 cast and introducing some new emerging plot lines and story arcs would do the story good. Funny how there are now 22 living characters; the same number of starting contestants from TDI. I think everyone knows by now that I enjoy focusing on character relationships and development even more so than the actual zombies (don't worry, we'll get some good zombie action soon though).**

 **Speaking of the season 4 cast, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on how I'm portraying them individually and collectively. What do you think of some new rivalries, friendships, possible romances? What are Jo and Cameron plotting? Is Bridgette going to realize Scott is manipulating her? And what will DJ do now that he's almost fully recovered and already distrustful of this new group? Find out next time on Undead Drama!**

 **Leave me some reviews please!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B**

 **ALIVE: Heather (twisted ankle), Duncan, Geoff, DJ (recovering from bullet wound), Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro, Cameron, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike (sick), Dakota, Anne Maria, Brick, Sam (sick), Dawn, Staci (sick)**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet**


	12. Chapter 12: A Shift In Luck

**We've hit a dozen chapters folks! And in way quicker time than I anticipated so I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this one. I also realize most people probably skip the author's notes at the top but I enjoy it so yeah.**

 **Anywho, I do want to send a shout out to those of you who have consistently reviewed my story in either comments or private messages! It's very much appreciated and I'm getting more and more interesting reviews as the plot thickens. Really loved reading that long review about personal thoughts on all of the Revenge cast, as well as the feedback of all my most vehement readers. Thanks guys!**

 **Also if anyone is curious to poll results, the top few still haven't changed with Gwen and Cody still leading despite not being in the story for what, 5 chapters now? Just thought I'd let you know. And the voting is still open so go ahead and vote if you haven't already!**

 **But on with the chapter! It's my longest one by far and I'm curious what people's take on this one will be.**

 **WARNING: This story will contain scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activities and character death.**

* * *

One week had passed since the TDI survivors had arrived at the hotel, which conveniently was named "Revenge Hotel" by Jo because she claimed she'd liked the name. The survivors had spent the week doing a wide variety of things, but primarily integrating themselves into Jo's group and trying to get to know some of them. Alejandro had made this suggestion to the entire group on their second night here as a means to form allies not enemies. No one had thought his idea was invalid so they set about trying to accomplish the task.

Some took to the task more so than others. Much to her own annoyance, Courtney was having the most difficulties with the majority of the group aside from Brick. The soldier-in-training seemed to get along swimmingly with the counselor-in-training and they spent a lot of their days together discussing who knows what. Duncan, his mood soured by this, did not really strive to get to know anyone in the group and he mostly sulked in his room while Trent awkwardly consoled him.

DJ was finally recovered from his original wound completely and he was practically born anew. Despite his initial misgivings about trusting people, he'd had a lovely conversation with both Dawn and Dakota and he was back to his warm and endearing personality. Katie had taken particular note of his attitude shift and she was relieved: she admired the positive version of DJ. He was the one who had helped her get through this ordeal thus far, after all.

Bridgette still checked up on DJ from time to time, but now that he was recovered she could spend more time with Geoff. The two hadn't really had a lot of time to settle down and concentrate on each other, but they hadn't experienced a single zombie attack in that whole week and they were back on excellent communication terms. And the couple were some of the best at mingling with the newer members of the group. Geoff had quickly befriended almost the entire group, bar those who were sick. Even Anne Maria took a liking to him, though only she could say what that meant exactly. And Bridgette had continued her friendship with Scott, as well as gotten to know some of the girls too. So far she'd held her end of the bargain as being the group's "doctor", however the condition of Sam and Staci had not yet improved. Mike's condition seemed to baffle Bridgette because he didn't seem ill or sick, and yet he rarely awoke from his state of rest.

Noah mostly kept to himself, though at one point he'd been in the medical area and began speaking to a conscious Sam. The two seemed to hit it off surprisingly well, but when Dawn had entered the room Noah had quickly excused himself to avoid dealing with "nonsensical shenanigans" as he put it. Heather had spent a few days recovering from her twisted ankle but once she was up and walking again, she was back to her usual self. She'd gotten into a few bickering arguments with Jo and Courtney, she and her lover had continued their love-hate relationship; it was business as usual. Although Heather had also made a new friend in Dakota. Dakota practically gushed over Heather's brilliance in Total Drama World Tour to her, explaining how she'd never expected to find herself cheering for the original villain but Heather's story arc was epic. Heather loved the praise and actually found herself interested in learning about Dakota's life as well.

But no one had befriended people the way Alejandro had. The cunning womanizer had made sure that every girl in the new group had a good impression of him by taking the time to give each of them attention. Anne Maria had found herself nearly unable to keep her eyes off of him, Staci had woken from her slumber and found herself having hot flashes just from looking at him, even Dakota had unintentionally blushed when she saw Alejandro exercising purposely without a shirt on. And it wasn't just the girls he was charming. Alejandro had been quick to form friendships with Lightning and Brick, claiming the pair of them were exceptionally skilled athletes and he was honored to have them on his side. Heather had mostly just watched with annoyance as he went about his business and didn't spend much time with her. She would never admit this openly, but it made her jealous: both that he would flirt with the other girls, and that he was simply _better_ at being nice to people. She wanted to fix that, but she truly didn't know how.

Heather found herself lost in these very thoughts as Alejandro and Lightning laughed about something sports related, when she felt someone tapping her shoulder. She turned, already expecting to be annoyed, and was somewhat surprised to see it was Katie and DJ.

"What?" Heather asked, a lot more malice than necessary in her voice; it was only natural for her.

Katie ignored the harsh tone and smiled at her, "We were just wondering if you wanted to do something with us. We were thinking of playing some sort of 'get to know you' type of games with everybody and thought you could join."

"No thanks," Heather scoffed, "I don't want to do something so stupid. What is this, fifth grade?"

"Hey now," DJ said warningly as he put a defensive hand on Katie's shoulder for support, "no need to be nasty Heather, she was just asking. Besides, we've both noticed you haven't really made friends since you been here and thought we could help."

"Whatever," Heather rolled her eyes, "and I have too made friends. Dakota and I are gal pals."

"Okay then," Katie sounded visibly irked by the way the conversation turned out, and she grabbed DJ's arm, "come on DJ, let's go to your room."

DJ seemed content with this, though he did have one last thing to say to Heather before departing, "You do realize that with everything that is happening in the world right now, one of the only things that _wouldn't_ kill you is to make peace with those around you. This isn't a reality television show anymore, this is reality itself."

Heather didn't reply but she watched the two walk away. DJ's words hung heavy over her but she didn't want to dote on them: what did he know compared to her? So she stuck her nose in the air and stalked away to go do something she considered "productive".

* * *

"No way, I was in an animal rights club too!" Bridgette was exclaiming joyfully to Dawn as they sat together in the medical area, not currently needing to tend to anyone.

"Your aura simply radiates happiness and thoughtfulness Bridgette." Dawn smiled warmly, "And we have so much in common. I'm glad for this, it's been difficult holding on to my principles with the dead walking among us."

"Oh my gosh I know," Bridgette agreed, as if this were a typical conversation which these days it sort of was, "I can't even stand the idea of killing something, even if it's technically already dead. I just hate violence in general."

"There's no reason why we can't stick to our morals despite the circumstances." Dawn stated firmly, Bridgette readily agreeing.

As the two continued talking, several others were entering the room, Jo and Courtney among them. Courtney cleared her throat and addressed those in the room, "Just so everybody knows, we've decided it's time to head out on another scavenging mission. With twenty two people, we've been running low on food fairly rapidly."

"So CIT and I are taking our team," Jo gestured towards Duncan, Lightning, Alejandro, Trent and Brick, "to go find some shit. Dakota's in charge while we're gone. All clear?"

The girls were nodding, and both Scott and Geoff, who were entering at that moment, also nodded their consent. Scott shot a quick look at Bridgette, and then strangely over at the relaxed form of Mike, but he chose not to say anything. Bridgette had caught his eye and she raised her brow: what was that all about? She'd have to ask him.

Suddenly, Staci shot up from her position of laying down and she gasped and proclaimed eerily, "Unlucky! Seven is unlucky today! My dead great-great aunt's second cousin warned me!"

"That's fascinating Blabber Mouth," Jo rolled her eyes, "why don't you get back to sleeping-"

But Jo faltered when Staci was actually glancing around at all of them wildly, almost in a panic, and she finally rested her eyes on Mike, "Death! Death follows him!"

"What the hell is she talking about?" Zoey, who was kneeling next to Mike, rose and asked angrily.

Staci settled now on Bridgette and looked horrified, holding a shaking finger up to point at her, "Oh no, sweetheart your time is running out! My ancestors-"

"Okay man that's enough," Geoff interrupted, coming over to put a comforting arm over a now stunned and shaken Bridgette, "we don't need all these bad vibes."

"But the seven!" Staci shrieked again and by now the entire group had come to see the commotion.

"Will someone tell that hideous freak to shut the fuck up?" Heather hissed as she came down the stairs, "My ear drums are going to bleed for Christ's sake!"

"Guys," Trent said a bit shakily, "I know this may sound weird, but there are seven people on our team to go get supplies."

"What of it?" Jo asked.

"I know you might not really understand, but as someone who used to have an...unfortunate obsession with a number, the superstition of luck and bad luck can be a powerful thing." Trent said, regretfully recalling his number nine fiasco from Total Drama Action, "Maybe we shouldn't have seven people go on the supply run."

"That has to be the lamest thing I've ever heard," Duncan snorted, "she's yanking your chains man, don't worry about it."

"Lightning thinks annoying girl might be sha-right." Lightning said, a bit of concern in his voice, "My Pops always warned me about things like that. And this champion ain't going down for some dumb superstition!"

"Fine then you can stay here like a pansy!" Jo sneered at him, "Everyone happy now? Jesus Christ I'm surrounded by idiots!"

As soon as Lightning volunteered to remain behind, Staci had visibly relaxed and was now muttering quietly, "Now the bad luck will shift..."

She was soon snoring once again. The moment of fear had been swept under the rug and people were once again focused on the task at hand. Courtney awkwardly cleared her throat again and said, "Right, well then the _six_ of us will be gone for the day at least. If we aren't back by nightfall, don't worry about it."

"Yeah only start to worry about us if we're gone for _nine_ days." Duncan couldn't resist the smug look he gave Trent, who looked irritated by it.

"Everyone sha-quit with the numbers!" Lightning actually put his hands over his ears, "I'm not gonna listen to it!"

"Big baby." Scott muttered under his breath as he rolled his eyes at the pathetic display from Lightning.

By now Courtney and Jo were really annoyed so they started shuffling the remaining members of their team outside. Only Alejandro remained for a moment, to try and get a word with Heather, but she seemed disinterested and went back up the stairs. He sighed and hurriedly exited the building and allowed Dakota to close the door behind him. He was back into the apocalyptic world once again.

* * *

The group of six had left over an hour ago and aside from that normal service had resumed. Dawn and Bridgette were continuously checking on Staci, but the girl seemed totally out of it and showed no signs of waking again to cause any havoc. Zoey still sat next to Mike on his bed, though she wasn't crying at the moment. She was looking thoughtfully at Staci and then back at Mike, as if trying to sense any possible connection.

Scott and Geoff were also in the room and after they shared a quick word, Geoff had come marching over towards Bridgette with a suggestive look in his eye, "Hey Bridge!"

"Hi Geoff." She replied without emotion as she wasn't sure what he was all happy about.

"I was wondering if you could take a break from all of this doctor stuff and spend some more time with me. In our room." Geoff let that last sentence sink in a bit and Bridgette found herself a bit tempted.

"It is fine with me, my friend." Dawn said from a meditative pose next to her, "You appear very tired after all."

"Just cuddling?" Bridgette asked and Geoff nodded.

"Sure, I just got to take care of something really quick and I'll meet you up there." Geoff beamed at her and gave her a quick peck before going back over to Scott. Bridgette flushed slightly but felt herself relaxing: she _was_ tired. She could almost hear her bed calling her name. She bade Dawn farewell and headed off to her room on the second floor.

A few minutes later, Zoey found herself startled when her boyfriend gasped and opened his eyes for the first time in a while. Her shock quickly turned to joy and she hugged him fiercely, "Oh Mike thank goodness you're awake! I've been so worried about you!"

"It's good to be awake." Mike smiled weakly back at her, but he then frowned and said, "But why do I feel so...weird?"

"What do you mean?" Zoey asked, clearly confused.

"I can't remember anything that's happened for...wait how long have I been out?"

"It's been about a week now." Zoey told him and he paled.

"Zoey, I don't remember anything since the attack. When was the attack?" Mike was almost pleading for an answer and Zoey was visibly worried.

"Mike...the attack happened three weeks ago." Zoey said, voice full of concern.

"I'm sure it's nothing a little bit of sleep won't fix." Scott assured them as he and Geoff passed them by, "Sleep well 'Mike'."

Zoey heard Scott snicker a bit as he and Geoff exited, but she paid him no mind. She leaned down to press her lips on Mike's forehead before saying, "Do you think you can walk?"

"Like I said, I don't _feel_ bad." Mike told her, promptly getting out of the bed and standing with ease, "What's happening to me?"

"I'm not sure, but come on." Zoey offered her hand and he took it, "Let's get you up to my room and away from those who are actually ill. Staci was..."

She glanced over at the sleeping form of Staci but decided to leave her thought fragmented, "Never mind, let's just go."

They passed by Anne Maria on their way up the stairs, who merely sprayed her infamous hair spray and forced Mike into gasping and cursing at her in a very different voice, "Dang kids and their fancy whim whams! Back in my day-"

"Can it Multi Moron!" Anne Maria snapped at him and sprayed more of the spray in his face.

"Hey!" Zoey exclaimed angrily, "That was so uncalled for! And extremely rude! He has a disorder he can't help you...you _bitch_!"

"Oh wow Red learned how to swear," Anne Maria seemed unfazed, "not impressed sweetheart. Now move it or lose it, kay?"

"One day you'll get what's coming to you." Mike said, suddenly in a different voice and tone that sent chills down even Zoey's spine, "You worthless scum."

"Excuse me?" Anne Maria blinked in surprise but Mike seemed to have gone back to normal and no longer seemed able to respond. Anne Maria just huffed in annoyance and said, "To hell with both of ya's, I don't got time for your whiny ass problems."

She continued on her way down the stairs and Zoey looked on the verge of tears, "I don't know what came over me to curse at her like that, but she _really_ irks me. I'm sorry Mike. Mike?"

"I feel woozy," Mike told her, clutching his head and she partially held him up, "let's just get to your room quick."

* * *

Katie and DJ were spending some quality time together in DJ's room. They had briefly asked around to see if anyone wanted to do anything with them, but either they were busy or they pulled what Heather pulled. So it was just the two of them, which neither really minded.

Katie was currently standing at the window and looking out at the fairly dismal scenery. The land around this little town was decaying already, the sky was grey with storm clouds, and there still wasn't another person to be seen for miles around. It was all in all extremely depressing.

"Come away from there," DJ said softly, "no need to get more upset than you already are."

Katie closed the curtains and went to join him, sitting down next to him on the bed. She was clearly frustrated, "I'm just annoyed that no one really wants to try doing anything normal. I mean I get that we're in an apocalypse here, but shouldn't we try and hold on to what used to matter to us?"

"I think we should." DJ agreed thoughtfully, "That's why since I've improved in my condition I've been offering to cook the group's meals. It reminds me of home...and my Mama."

He looked saddened as Katie continued her little rant, "People like Heather, Jo and Courtney are all like this though. They don't care about other people, they just focus on themselves. They're the types to call me immature, or whatever, but I'm looking out for everyone! It's what Sadie would have wanted-"

She faltered as she mentioned her former best friend for the first time in a long while. She felt DJ's hand find hers and he whispered, "I know. But they're doing what they think is best too, even if they aren't as showy about it as you are."

Katie didn't seem convinced but he continued, "But I like that you care so much Katie. I like knowing that I have somebody like you in my life that will always look out for me, the same way I look out for you."

"You don't find me immature like most of the others?" Katie asked, her voice receding into more of a whisper as she glanced up at him.

DJ shook his head, "Nope, I always thought you were confident in who you are as a person. And that's maturity to me. You are an amazing girl Katie, don't let anything tarnish that knowledge."

It was then that Katie pressed her lips against his for the first time ever. And she felt fireworks; all the pent up emotions of worry and sadness from when he had been shot. The happiness and joy when she'd discovered he was alive; when he said he would never leave her. It all came down to a first kiss.

DJ didn't hesitate to kiss her back. The tension between the two had been mutual. He felt himself leaning in closer to her, his hands reaching down her back to pull her closer. She eagerly moved in as well and soon they were full on making out, and even reaching the point where Katie was unclasping her bra.

DJ paused at this and looked into her eyes, "Is this what you want?"

She kissed him and slowly took her top of, "This is all I've ever wanted."

Just then there was a knocking sound coming from the door to their room. They both stopped and looked at each other, neither interested in opening it. But then the knocking continued and Katie sighed, "Perhaps one of us should get that?"

"Since I'm still wearing clothes, allow me." DJ said with a bit of a cheeky grin as Katie covered herself with a bed sheet.

The jock with a heart of gold opened the door and said, "What is so important you had to ruin-ah!"

He certainly had not been expecting to open the door and find himself staring into the glossy eyes of a zombie. Nor had he been prepared for its instantaneous attack. The zombie immediately bit down on DJ's arm and he cried out in shock and pain.

"DJ!" Katie shrieked in terror as she shot out of the bed, disregarding her current state.

"Stay back!" DJ warned and yelped again as he wrestled with the zombie, who was now furiously lodging its teeth into the shoulder of the same arm it had just bitten.

"We don't have any weapons on us!" Katie shouted, her heart pumping with nothing but fear and adrenaline, "Someone help!"

* * *

Dawn still sat in her meditative state in the medical room, but she opened her eyes at the sound of a pitter patter of a set of very small feet. She found herself slightly surprised to make out the form of Cameron in the dim light.

"Cameron?" She called out to him, "What are you doing in here? I thought you were-"

Her eyes widened with alarm as she saw him step into the full light of the room: and he was completely covered in blood. She screamed as he snarled, a blank look in his once intelligent eyes, and took a step towards the nearest living person: the sleeping Sam. Dawn was helpless to prevent Cameron the zombie from biting down on Sam's jugular and she was forced to look away when the blood spurted out like a faucet and splattered all over Cameron.

There was nothing to be done about saving Sam, the poor boy hadn't even woken up, but Dawn rushed over to Staci's bedside and shook her awake frantically, "Come my dear, we need to run!"

Staci blinked her eyes open and said in a very creepy voice, "We warned them, the bad luck had to shift."

"Staci come on, I can help you run." Dawn pleaded with her but Staci did not get up.

"They should have listened," Staci said and turned to look at the undead form of Cameron, who was now moving towards her, "the end was in front of us all along."

Dawn had no choice but to run for her life as Cameron latched his teeth onto Staci's eye, bursting it instantly. Staci's screams could be heard like an echo in a sound chamber, but Dawn bolted up the stairs.

She ran to the nearest room and threw open the door before closing it shut behind her and locking it. Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was going to pass out. Now she had to warn the others before this became even worse than it already was.

"If you wanted to pester me, did you have to run in here like you've just seen a ghost?" The dry voice of Noah surprised her as she had not realized his room was the one she had entered.

"Zombies," Dawn said breathlessly and that got Noah's attention away from his book, "somehow Cameron became a zombie and is infecting the others."

"Who the hell is Cameron?" Noah asked with bewilderment, "We never met a Cameron."

"There's no time to explain that now," Dawn assured him, "but we need to figure out-"

She jumped as she heard pounding on the door and the rattling of the handle: good thing she'd locked it, "See? Those things are trying to get in right now!"

"Yes I can see that," Noah snapped as he closed the book and moved to join her, "do you have any weapons? Jo insisted that those of us not going on the scouting mission didn't need any weapons; foolish girl."

"I have a knife, but I don't know how to use it." Dawn admitted, "Jo told me to take it just in case, but I couldn't bring myself to harm anything anyway."

"Seriously?" Noah deadpanned but she nodded seriously, "Fine, whatever, just give me the knife!"

She quickly handed him the blade and she said, "Surely you aren't planning on opening that door and fighting those things are you? You're...small, like me."

"Of course I'm not, that would be something an idiot like Lightning would do." Noah snorted, "I'm only going to use this as a last resort and wait till someone with actual weapons comes along and saves us."

"But how we will we help the others?" Dawn asked incredulously.

"You need to forget about saving people and worry about us!" Noah snapped angrily at her and she took a step back, "Your naive ideals of never killing anything and hoping the world will simply be a better place soon have got to go if you want to survive! You have to be willing to be cutthroat, you have to do things you never expected you'd have to do. _That's_ necessity now. So either you adapt or you die!"

The pounding on the door increased but Dawn couldn't even hear it anymore. Noah's words were ringing in her ears: was he right? Was she going to have to throw away her values? The very things that made her who she was? If so, who or what would she become?

* * *

Bridgette was growing tired of waiting for Geoff, as she had been laying on the bed waiting for a solid ten minutes, and finally she stood and prepared to march herself out of the room. Was he seriously going to stand her up for no reason after requesting this himself? She shook her head; sometimes she wondered what it was about that boy she loved so much.

Her hand reached for the knob, but it opened before she could do anything and she was pushed back as someone collided into her. They collapsed to the ground and after getting her senses back, she realized it was Scott; and he looked terrified.

"Scott? What the-"

"Close the door!" Scott hollered and she obliged, "Hurry lock it! There are zombies in here!"

Bridgette's eyes widened and she said, "Where's Geoff? Wasn't he with you?"

"No," Scott shook his head, "I was off on my own when I saw them and I figured you guys would be in here so I came to warn you."

"We have to go save Geoff!" Bridgette decreed, but Scott stopped her from running out the door.

"We can't go out there without a plan!" Scott tried reasoning with her, as he locked the door, "We don't know how many of these things we're dealing with."

"Then let's make a plan." Bridgette quipped, "What weapons do you have?"

"Gun and knife," Scott said and handed her the knife, "but Bridgette, I can keep you safe in here. I can't protect you out there."

"I don't give a damn about my protection until I know where Geoff is." Bridgette said firmly as she looked determined to get past him, "Now step aside, I'm going out there with or without you."

"Bridgette," Scott begged, "this is a mistake, trust me."

"Saving the person I love is not a mistake." Bridgette replied and moved past Scott to open the door.

She opened the door and came face to face with the very person she was looking for. She was about to throw her arms around him in relief, but Scott pulled her back, "That's not him anymore Bridgette, he's been turned!"

Bridgette's heart stopped: Scott was right. Geoff didn't look that different than usual, but a slight chunk of the back of his neck was missing and his eyes had taken on that pale feature all the undead had once they had turned. The former party animal locked eyes with Bridgette and growled.

"Geoff!" Bridgette screamed his name in sadness, anger, fear and simply because she didn't know what else to do as he stumbled towards her, "No, no, no, no, no! Why? Geoff come back to me, come back to me!"

Geoff ignored her but she kept trying as she allowed him to keep coming closer, "Please, baby it's me, Bridgette. I love you remember? Remember Geoff?"

Geoff finally lunged for her and she screamed as Scott fired the gun into the side of Geoff's head. Geoff's body collapsed in a pool of his own blood at Bridgette's feet. She shrieked and fell to her knees by his side and grabbed at him, "No! Geoff!"

She sobbed hysterically as Scott moved to close the door. She looked up at him a moment later, tears streaming down her face, and she screamed, "How could you? How could you _kill_ him?"

"Bridgette he was already-" Scott tried but she went back to wailing and cradling Geoff's body in her arms.

* * *

"What's happening?" Zoey asked fearfully to the others who had come dashing into the room with her and Mike.

"How should we know?" Heather snapped at her as she and the last member of the group, Dakota, tried to keep the door closed but the zombies were pushing against it. They hadn't been able to close the door in time, "Get over here and help us!"

"But Mike..." Zoey trailed off and glanced down at him.

"Who gives a flipping fuck about his 'condition' right now? We're all about to die you brainless idiot!" Heather lost her cool and Zoey looked angry.

However, Dakota came to Heather's side here, "She's right Zoey, we need your, ugh, help. These things are tough."

Zoey finally consented and the three girls worked together to finally close the door. Locking it was a different story, but they used their combined weight to keep the zombies out for now.

"Any news on anybody else?" Zoey asked, sounding worried.

Dakota shook her head sadly, "No idea, the two of us were in my room chatting when we heard commotion. We hurried to warn you and then, well, got attacked. Oh I hope Sam is okay."

"Oh he isn't." Mike said as he awoke, once again using that eerie voice, "He's one of many to perish today."

Dakota looked angered and Zoey quickly moved over to her boyfriend to calm him down. Unfortunately, this foolish move was enough for the zombies to start pushing in again, with Heather and Dakota unable to hold them back.

"Fuck!" Heather cursed as she and Dakota were forced to back away as a zombified Sam and Staci were now entering the room. Dakota looked mortified and paralyzed with shock as soon as she saw Sam was one of the undead.

"Dakota, your gun!" Heather shouted but Dakota was a million miles away. Sam took a few clumsy steps towards her and prepared to go in for the kill.

A gunshot went off and Sam's head exploded, grey matter flying every which way and landing on Dakota. Another bullet was fired at Staci, though it missed her head and hit her in the shoulder. The girls' and Mike's savior cursed and threw down the gun and drew a sword instead.

Staci's head was severed clean off her body, revealing Lightning to be standing in the doorway, breathing heavily. Dakota slowly took her arm to brush off some bits of Sam that were on her person and a few tears found their way down her cheeks. Zoey was still focused on Mike, so Lightning looked to Heather.

"Help me kill the others?" Lightning asked her, "I think I've gotten most of those sha-zombies."

Heather nodded after a look at Dakota. The queen of mean took Dakota's gun, with Dakota doing absolutely nothing to stop her, and she followed Lightning out of the room and closed the door so those three would be safe from any further harm until the situation was cleared up.

* * *

"Ah wonderful timing." Noah said with genuine relief as Lightning and Heather killed off the final remaining zombies that had been trying to get at Noah and Dawn, "I never thought I'd say this, but thanks for saving my life Heather."

"Not in the mood dork." Heather said darkly as she and Lightning moved off to check on the others and see who else had died.

Zoey had realized Mike wasn't a priority right now and she was currently dragging Staci and Sam's bodies out towards the medical room. Dakota had followed her shakily, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything as the tears continued to cascade down. Dawn hurriedly moved to join the others in dragging bodies, finding herself very upset when she stumbled upon Cameron's. She couldn't get that look out of her head and she didn't want to admit Noah had been right.

Scott was dragging the dead form of Geoff out of his room with Bridgette sobbing and following dismally after him. No one could meet Bridgette's gaze: this was hard on everyone, but everybody knew how close she and Geoff were. Even Noah gave her some sympathy.

Lightning flung the door open to Anne Maria's room and was slightly disappointed to discover that Anne Maria had been turned. It appeared she'd fought back though, as the zombie who must have bitten her had clearly been stabbed in the head. There was a small bite mark near her hairline, ironically enough, but that was enough to do her in. Lightning sighed and used his sword to cleave through her brain, ending her misery.

Heather tentatively stepped into DJ's room, which had its door open, and looked somewhat saddened to see the lovable giant on was one of the infected. She quickly used a blade Lightning had given her to stab him in the brain. She didn't know what Katie was going to do when she found out.

And then she saw it: Katie's ripped up clothes on the ground next to DJ's body. That ridiculous pink top and matching bottom she had always worn on the show lay tattered next to the deceased jock and a lock of her hair lay adjacent to it. She swallowed hard: DJ must have _eaten_ Katie. Her entire body was gone save the remnants of her hair and Heather had difficulties not vomiting at the thought. In fact, only seconds later, Heather couldn't keep it down and she threw up all over the floor where Katie's clothes were. She shuddered and shook something fierce, but couldn't bear to be in such a depressing environment any longer. Heather quickly joined the rest of the survivors in the medical area and relayed the information about DJ and Katie. Everyone looked sad at that as Scott volunteered to drag DJ's body into the room.

Almost everybody was still sobbing, crying or shaking as they tried to understand what had just happened. But it was Bridgette who broke the silence, with one of the most horrific things to ever be uttered, "DJ, Cameron, Sam, Staci, Geoff..., Anne Maria, Katie. Seven people. Seven deaths. Staci said seven was unlucky and once the group had Lightning stay behind, she said the luck would be shifted. She told me I was doomed..."

"She tried to warn us somehow." Dawn remembered exactly what Staci's dying words were and she echoed them now, "The end was in front of us all along."

Everyone ceased conversation, except for Noah who voiced something that was on everyone's minds, "But how the heck did any of the zombies get in? There are two that aren't people from our group that must have started this."

"Nobody knows," Heather said, "but we need to figure it the fuck out or we're going to be relocating real fast."

* * *

 **flashback scene**

 _"Are you sure dude?" Geoff asked Scott as they entered the medical room, "Bridgette probably shouldn't be doing anything sexual with me given her condition..."_

 _"Then just ask to cuddle or something," Scott said, trying to keep his annoyance in check, "but make sure you come back cause there's something I think you might need."_

 _Sure enough, it went without a hitch. Geoff came back to Scott after speaking with Bridgette and he grinned, "You were right dude, she seemed to like the idea!"_

 _"Fantastic, now come with me." Scott ushered him out and over towards the front desk, "Here, take this key and go inside to get some lotion. Bridgette could probably use a massage after all that stressful work she's been doing. Oh and do you happen to know where Heather is right now?"_

 _"Alright dude, my girl could definitely use one." Geoff agreed and accepted the key from his new friend and inserted it into the lock, "And I'm pretty sure DJ mentioned something about getting Heather to hang with him and Katie. Those two are a couple now you know." He pushed open the door and entered Cameron's "laboratory" and blinked a few times._

 _"Um dude, where's the lotion-" Geoff began but was cut off when Scott hit him over the back of the head with the butt of his gun. The cowboy face planted onto the ground and lay still; unconscious._

 _"What's all this commotion?" Cameron had been drawn into the outer room and his eyes widened when he saw Geoff on the ground, "Scott? What are you-"_

 _Scott was quick to move over to Cameron and snap the little man's neck. Cameron couldn't do anything to prevent this and he soon fell to the ground, dead. Scott hurried to close and lock the door behind him._

 _"Now to see what you and Jo have been hiding this whole time." Scott snickered, as if he already knew the answer. He rounded the corner and went deeper into Cameron's study area and his eyes glimmered with victory, "Ah, so it turns out Mal was right. And to think I thought Mal wasn't even one of that freak's real personalities. What luck!"_

 _Scott briefly remembered conversing with Mike after the teen had startled him by waking up. No one else had been around and Scott had been previously muttering about the need for a plan to take down some of these distrusting newbies when Mike had woken. Apparently he had heard Scott and even threatened him, but before Scott could do away with him, he had gasped and seemed much more eager of the idea of killing people. He told Scott his true name was Mal and that Mike was nothing more than an alternate personality. Scott warmed up to the idea and Mal explained to him that Cameron had once let slip what he and Jo worked on in that secret room. From there, it had been easy to have Mal, posed as Mike, swipe the keys from Cameron and give them to Scott for future use._

 _"A foolproof plan." Scott smirked as he approached the zombies in cages that Mal had told him about, "You two look hungry, don't ya? Well good news, I've got several snacks waiting for you right over here."_

 _And then he undid the lock on the cages and allowed them to feast on Cameron and Geoff, eventually turning them. Scott grinned and said, "Geoff said Heather was in DJ's room so that's where I'll have one of you go first. That'll teach that bitch and her stupid boyfriend Alejandro to mess with me!"_

 **end flashback**

* * *

Scott glanced over at Mike, who gave him a devious look; it must've been Mal after all. Scott withheld his triumphant grin; Heather may still be alive, but he had killed off several members of both groups. And in this world of death and chaos, he had never felt more alive.

* * *

 **Yikes. Well that was probably the most shocking and most fun chapter to write so far from my perspective. I figured a shocking bloodbath was exactly what the story needed to remind everyone that we aren't just settling down at some hotel and having cat fights or falling in love. The world these characters are living in is still broken and damaged, and this chapter highlights that.**

 **Still, even I wasn't sure if I'd actually have the courage to kill of 7 characters in one chapter. I'm extremely curious to hear you guys' thoughts on this one, what with all the deaths and the way I foreshadowed it with Staci's creepy comments. Is Scott the most hated character by far? Was the Mal plot twist alright or was it lack luster? Are you devastated I finally brought DJ back from his injury only to kill him _and_ Katie off right after they finally got together? And what about Geoff and Bridgette? Let me know!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B, DJ, Cameron, Sam, Staci, Geoff, Anne Maria, Katie**

 **ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Noah, Alejandro, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike, Dakota, Brick, Dawn**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet**


	13. Chapter 13: Us Versus Them

**Exactly 1 month later I have finally gotten another chapter out. I've had a pretty busy time and I know the upcoming month and a half is going to be similar so I have no idea when I'll be posting another chapter after this but I know my loyal fans will enjoy it all the same. I just want to thank all the people who have read and given me feedback because it's been pretty much all positive and that means I must be doing something right. Especially after the reaction to the last chapter; oh boy did you guys enjoy that one! I thought I was going to get butchered for killing off so many characters but it seems to have worked. Just wait for what I have in store for you here.**

 **Also just a casual reminder I put in almost every chapter, I do have a poll up in my profile for voting for the characters you most want to survive. It used to only include the original characters but season four cast members are in it now too. Don't forget, these votes may have a small impact on how I write the story (but only so much haha).**

 **But without further adieu, enjoy chapter 13!**

 **WARNING: This story may contain scenes of swearing, violence, sexual activities and character deaths.**

* * *

"And the next thing I knew, my instructor was yelling at me to run laps till sunset! My boots have never smelled so rank!" Brick exclaimed and Courtney couldn't help herself from laughing at his story as the pair partook in the scavenging mission.

"That's why you should never break the rules." Courtney chided lightly and almost giggled.

Currently the two of them, along with Trent, Duncan, Jo and Alejandro were on the outskirts of a nearby village Jo had decided was to be the location of their search. Jo and Al were leading the way, each carrying a shotgun and had a blade of some kind at their belts. All six of them were locked and loaded, after Jo had granted permission for them to have access to weapons once outside the base.

Courtney and Brick were in the middle of the formation, not too far back from the leaders. They had already bonded over their time together, and the friendship seemed only to grow stronger as the hours went by. This was not unnoticed by Duncan, who walked with Trent at the back. The delinquent just grit his teeth and tapped the pistol repeatedly against his side.

" _My boots have never smelled so rank!_ " Duncan mocked in a low voice and rolled his eyes, "Please, this guy's such a loser."

"Jealous are we?" Trent teased him, but the look Duncan gave him made him think twice about it.

"I wouldn't recommend you start mouthing off on me considering I was the one who graciously let you go after Gwen." Duncan reminded him, though both boys felt a pang of sadness at the mention of both of their former girlfriend.

"Trust me I haven't forgotten," Trent whispered softly, "I think about it, and her, every day. How we just left her there..."

"Courtney had to make a choice." Duncan stated firmly, trying not to think about his own doubts about the call to leave the others behind, "There's nothing to be done about it now."

Up ahead, Courtney was now making Brick laugh after telling some story about rock climbing with a girl named Tiffany. Duncan internally squirmed, but Trent put a comforting hand on his shoulder and suggested they just try and forget about girls for the time being. Duncan didn't reply.

After walking for another thirty minutes, Jo put up a hand and they all crowded around her, "Alright maggots, the town is just over this ridge. We'll split into two teams of three and divide the town in half. Team one takes the west side, team two takes the east."

"A very wise idea." Alejandro commented, "So what are the groups going to be?"

Duncan moved to say something but Jo beat him to it, "Me, Private Leaks-a-lot, and CIT will be the first group. Number Nine, Ale-handout and Delinquent will be the second group. Now let's move!"

Brick and Courtney seemed perfectly happy with their group, but Alejandro gave a look to Duncan and Trent and muttered, "Delightful..."

"Try not to cause too many problems, okay boys?" Courtney said jokingly to the trio.

"Ma'am, I must remind you that I'm a boy and I'm on your team." Brick informed her.

"You aren't the one I expect to make a mistake." Courtney pointed out, giving a sly and amused look at Duncan. He didn't meet her gaze.

"Enough chatter then," Alejandro spoke, "come along men, we have much to do." And with that, the groups split up to begin their various scavenging adventures.

* * *

The nine survivors of the hotel fiasco were still standing together as one just outside the room they'd piled all the dead bodies in. Heather's accusatory words still fresh in everyone's mind, and now distrust was beginning to form.

"Nobody leave this room," Noah said angrily as it began to dawn on him, "someone in here must have let those zombies in. There's no other explanation."

"That can't be true." Zoey wailed, "No one here would do such a thing."

"Oh really?" Noah raised an eyebrow and glanced at Heather, "Did you all happen to forget we're in a room with a notorious backstabber who became famous for being shady on television?"

"You want to accuse me?" Heather asked angrily; she was met with a stern look, "I just saved your life a few minutes ago you ungrateful dork!"

"I saw your show too," Scott piped up, "I can't say I exactly trust you."

" _You_ don't trust _me_?" Heather scoffed, "Well that's hysterical considering _you're_ the one who injured my ankle. How do we know it wasn't you?"

"Figures, the newcomers want to blame those of us who have been here longer." Scott shook his head with disgust and now addressed primarily Dakota, Lightning, Dawn, Zoey and Mike, "Friends you see what's happening here right? These people who have come here want us out!"

"Hold on now, you're turning this on me too?" Noah asked angrily.

"You two," Scott pointed at Noah and Heather, "you both pitched a fit about Jo not letting you have access to weapons. Wanted to get a little revenge did we? Well you didn't fool me!"

"Oh but she doesn't classify as 'one of us'?" Heather hissed at him, pointing at Bridgette who was staring vacantly off into space; her mind a million miles from here, "Have a little crush on surfer girl huh? Wanted Geoff out of the way so you could have her to yourself you sick bastard?"

"Scott might be sha-right." Lightning said nervously, "Noah's always making rude comments and shit. Doesn't like us much."

"So you think I would do something this stupid?" Noah laughed at him, "I was reading in my room the whole time, I didn't even know we were under attack."

"It's true," Dawn piped up, "when I realized what was happening, I fled to Noah's room and found him unperturbed."

"Probably because he set the whole thing up with the queen over here." Scott jerked a thumb at Heather, "It's all an act!"

"You desperate son of a bitch!" Heather growled at him, "I have nothing to gain in doing something like that."

"And you're delusional if you think Heather and I orchestrated this _together_." Noah rolled his eyes.

"Well where was Heather then when this started?" Scott challenged, "No one can account for her whereabouts."

"I went back to my room after DJ and Katie wanted to do some stupid get-to-know-you thing." Heather explained.

"And where are those two to vouch for that statement now?" Scott hissed and it seemed he may have convinced some people gathered.

"Heather was talking to me for a while." Dakota pointed out, "That must count for something."

"But there would've been plenty of time for her to let those things in during the time between talking to DJ and Katie and the time she spent with you." Mike finally added to the conversation, "I think Scott's right, Heather did this."

"You really think so Mike?" Zoey asked, scared out of her mind. Mike nodded at her.

"I sha-think she sha-did it too." Lightning added his consent and before Heather knew it, the majority was against her.

"Someone grab her," Scott ordered, "we can't risk her or Noah trying anything else now that we've figured them out."

"You're joking right?" Noah asked as he slowly started to back away.

"Stop trying to run then." Scott smirked.

"If you were told you were about to be grabbed by people who think you committed murder, would you not run?" Noah asked sarcastically.

"Everyone shut the fuck up." Bridgette surprised a couple of people with her words as she finally rose to her feet, "There's no proof, none. Against anybody. So stop this, this isn't Total Drama you guys this is _real life_. My Geoff..."

She faltered and broke into another fit of hysterics, but her speech had the desired effect. Now people were all glancing warily at each other, but no one made any move to seize Heather or Noah. Dawn knelt down to comfort Bridgette and she said quietly, "We must wait for Jo and the others to come back before we pass judgment on anybody."

"Fine," Scott sneered and glared at Noah and Heather, "but just so the pair of you know, you won't be around much longer!"

Scott stalked off and that seemed to trigger everybody into departing the room themselves. Mike made a move to follow Scott, which prompted Zoey to ask, "Why are you going after him?"

"Someone needs to check on him Zo," Mike used his nickname for her and gave her a quick kiss, "We're all just stressed out and I don't want him to do anything reckless."

Zoey smiled and returned the kiss, "You're such a great guy Mike, you're heart is always in the right place."

"Yup, always right here." Mike patted his chest with a broad smile that she managed to return.

"You're such a goober." Zoey laughed but then consented into allowing him to go after Scott. As soon as Mike was away from Zoey, he rolled his eyes and let out the exasperated sigh he'd been holding in. Good lord it was tedious and exhausting to deal with that girl; but he had to keep up the pretenses. He had to make her think he was still Mike.

'Mike' found Scott outside the hotel, grumbling to himself and scanning the perimeter to see if the noise had attracted any other zombies. As soon as the MPD located him, he approached.

"Something the matter?" Mal asked deviously.

"I need those two gone." Scott replied, referring to Noah and Heather, "Once they're gone, I just need to get rid of Alejandro and I win."

"Surely you cannot blame me," Mal told him, "my information was correct. I told you about the key to get into Cameron's lab; the foolish boy could never keep a secret. And now we're down to seven less people. Regretting it?"

"No," Scott answered honestly, "no I don't regret it, and I appreciate your help."

"Was Heather correct?" Mal asked, his eyes sparkling with interest, "About Bridgette?"

Scott gave him a look, but he did not verbally answer him. Instead, the dirt farmer asked, "Why did you help me with this anyway? What do you gain from it all?"

"What do I gain?" Mal repeated, "Oh, I gain a great many things that you wouldn't understand."

"Will you help me make sure those two don't weasel their ways out of this?" Scott asked, assuming the answer.

"You can count on it." Mal told him with a sinister smile.

* * *

Zoey was returning to her room, having mostly recovered from the horrors of earlier that day. Out of everybody still at the hotel, she considered herself to be one of the luckiest people; she should be dead. It was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that Heather had snapped her out of her worry over Mike and made her contribute to their survival. Would Heather really have done that if she was the one who let the zombies in originally?

"Your aura is confused, a stormy grey." Zoey nearly jumped when she realized Dawn was waiting for her in her room, "I know what troubles you Zoey, it troubles me too."

"Dawn you scared me." Zoey put a hand over her heart for a moment, "And I'm just really freaked about what's going on. I couldn't imagine anyone being so heartless..."

"Perhaps you should choose who you open up to a bit more carefully." Dawn said calmly and Zoey raised an eyebrow.

"The only person I truly opened up to is Mike...wait a minute, why would you say that?" Zoey asked angrily.

"Something Staci said that's stuck with me," Dawn said creepily as she repeated something Staci had told them all earlier, "death follows Mike."

"I remember she said that," Zoey snapped at her, "so what? She was ill-"

"Your love of Mike blinds you," Dawn told her and she faltered, "you are a strong, smart girl. But when it comes to him, you are foolish. That's what Heather tried to warn you about earlier; that's what I am saying to you now."

"How dare you tell me who I can and can't love!" Zoey actually shouted at her, "Now get out, get out!"

"Don't forget what I said." Dawn said coldly, if she could say anything coldly that is, but she obliged and left the room.

Zoey closed the door behind her and wept. What if they were right? She had been there when Staci said that about Mike; and Staci had predicted the seven deaths too. Surely that was all coincidence; or was it? Zoey put her head in her hands: she had never been good at making decisions or drawing conclusions. But there was a strange gut urge that was telling her that at the very least, the Mike situation was worth looking in to.

* * *

"What gives those lousy, low-life losers the right?" Heather was seething in Noah's room to the bookworm and a fairly despondent Bridgette. The door was closed and locked so the trio could have privacy, "We didn't do shit to make this happen! We lost three of our own!"

"Scott wanted to turn this into an 'us versus them' game." Noah said bitterly and glanced over at Bridgette, "Aren't you friend-ish with Scott?"

"Who cares?" Bridgette said glumly, "We're all just going to die anyway-"

Bridgette didn't recoil but she did stop talking as Heather's palm slapped her across the face and left a red mark. The queen bee glared at her and said, "Listen, I understand you feel awful right now. Losing Geoff and the others was hard, but you have got to get it together okay?"

"Do you even care?" Bridgette replied, staring Heather down, "I mean honestly, what have you lost compared to the rest of us?"

"Excuse me?" Heather asked darkly.

"The rest of us have all lost people we truly care about, but you," Bridgette hesitated, "do you really even care about anyone but yourself?"

"Of course I care!" Heather exploded, "You think I enjoy watching the people I know get ripped apart right in front of me?"

"You never cared about the rest of us on the show, we've experienced that for three years." Bridgette held her ground.

"You think I don't regret not making amends?" Heather choked out and with a start Noah observed her eyes were brimming with tears, "I think about them every day, and every night. I think about Lindsay and Beth; how awful I was to them. Poor Beth just needed a friend to keep her grounded; maybe she'd still be here if I had been that person. I think about Gwen and LeShawna: two people I have fought with the most in my life. We abandoned them and I never said I was sorry. And now Katie..."

Heather faltered for only a moment, "The last thing I said to her was insulting, degrading. I made her feel pathetic. How am I supposed to forgive myself for that?"

"Heather," Bridgette started but she wasn't done yet.

"But I have kept it together thus far, and you need to do the same." Heather said whilst crying, but that determination and fire was back, "Duncan, Trent, Alejandro, Courtney, and the three of us. We seven are a pack, you understand? We _need_ each other, I've grown to accept and embrace that. So we cannot afford to fall apart now or we all go down."

"Wow," Noah sounded genuinely shocked at the speech, "I never would've pegged Heather to be the one who made me feel like maybe there was still a point to surviving."

Heather merely nodded at him before turning to Bridgette, locking gazes with her once more. There used to be bad blood between the pair but an understanding had passed between them. Bridgette shakily rose to her feet and offered Heather a hand of truce; Heather took it.

"You're right." Bridgette said, brushing off tears of her own, "And we have to keep fighting for those we've lost. Geoff, Gwen, DJ, Katie, all of them."

Bridgette and Heather hugged for a long moment. Noah watched and said with slight amusement, "How touching-no wait! Ugh."

They had pulled him into the embrace as well, but despite his attitude he did not complain. The three just accepted each other then and there; they were together. It was them against the world. Finally they broke apart and a newfound loyalty and confidence was inside each of the trio.

"Now let's find a way to prove to these sons of bitches that we're innocent." Heather stated to the nodding of the other two.

* * *

Brick, Courtney and Jo had found themselves in a department store and after a brief examination, they had determined there were no threats inside. Now the three of them were thoroughly searching for anything of use, each with guns out just in case.

"Found something." Brick said and held up a few cylindrical containers, "Oh, never mind just hair spray."

"Maybe Anne Maria will like it," Jo shrugged and Brick put one in his pack just for her, "hey check these out."

Jo was browsing through an aisle of clothes and she took a dress of the rack and showed it to Courtney. Courtney raised an eyebrow: the dress would be perfect for Jo's style.

"Funny," Courtney said with a light smile, "I wouldn't have imagined you as the type to care about this sort of stuff."

"Sometimes a girl has to live a little." Jo remarked, sharing the smile as the two continued forming a dangerous friendship of their own.

"A little fun huh?" Courtney said as she eyed up a very risqué dress, "Maybe I could wear this someday."

"Seems way out of your comfort zone ma'am." Brick pointed out, "But this is still a free country so go for it. Trying to impress anybody in particular?"

"Please, we all know who she has the hots for." Jo said with a smirk, "It's a classic tale of good girl meets bad boy."

"Whatever," Courtney flushed but took the dress anyway, "maybe I'll be the bad girl for a change."

"You know, I'm really liking our pact." Jo told her honestly, "You seem great. Some others in your group I'm a little less prone to liking, but you have a place with us for however long you want."

"Well the offer is appreciated." Courtney responded in kind, "And I do understand the precautions you've taken so far, so nothing is held against you. I'll definitely talk to my group once we get back about making this a permanent deal if that's what you're thinking."

"There's always safety in numbers." Brick put a supportive hand on each of the ladies' shoulders. Then his eyes lit up as he spotted something across the room, "Flashlights! We could seriously use some of those!"

He scampered over to load up his bag with the items as Jo muttered something about how he was absurdly afraid of the dark. That left the two girls to themselves for a minute, and it inspired Courtney to ask something that had been on her mind for a while.

"Hey Jo can I ask you something?" Courtney inquired and the female jock nodded, "You mentioned a while back another group of survivors who caused some problems for you guys. What exactly happened with them?"

Jo's eyes darkened as she recalled some memories, and for a second Courtney thought she'd crossed a line. But Jo sighed and said, "There used to be a lot more of us, surviving you know? We were once a group of nearly thirty."

"We were once a group of twenty seven." Courtney recalled as faces of many of her deceased friends flashed before her eyes.

Jo simply nodded and continued, "Anyway, one day a couple of other people we'd never seen before found our hotel. At first they seemed friendly, they seemed trustworthy. We were foolish and naive and let them in after they assured us they could help. When I woke up the next day, half our supplies were gone and half our group was dead. Those bastards backstabbed us and nearly destroyed everything. Would have too if not for the zombies who came. Who would've thought I would owe my life to a zombie horde?"

Jo laughed hollowly, "We learned not to trust people after that, so we were just going to kill you guys. Good thing we didn't I guess."

"Indeed." Courtney nodded thankfully, remembering how she was nearly shot on that highway by Jo, "I'm sorry for your losses, I know what it's like to sustain that sort of stuff."

"I don't like to live in the past." Jo said with a shrug as she and Courtney came up to a medicine counter, "Ah, jackpot. Start loading this shit up and then we'll hit the snacks. Lord knows feeding over twenty people is a real bitch."

Courtney nodded and aided her in placing medicine in their bags. And the CIT was pleased with how Jo was opening up to her more and more; she felt as if she understood these people a lot better. Even the more aggressive ones she could connect with, because she'd experienced the same thing. She didn't even want to think about how much blood was already on her hands. Or how much more blood there might end up being.

* * *

There wasn't too much chatter going on between Alejandro, Duncan and Trent. It was no secret that Duncan harbored dislike for the Spaniard, despite what Alejandro had done for him on the highway. Trent had never cared much for him either, despite not having much of a relationship with him. He just knew him to be the male-Heather; and that could only mean bad things. And Alejandro had little interest in speaking to either of them as it was; he was preoccupied thinking about Heather. The two hadn't left off on great terms and he wondered what was going to happen when he got back.

"Hey," Duncan spoke and got the others' attention as he pointed at a building, "grocery store. Maybe we could get some grub in there."

"An excellent observation Duncan," Alejandro complimented him and ignored the muttered insults he got in exchange, "let's go in then."

The three men made their way quickly over to the entrance and discovered there was a zombie that was half crushed under a car just outside. The upper body still seemed functional as the zombie attempted to crawl towards them, gnashing down with its teeth. Alejandro looked at it with disgust, not pity, as he stabbed it with his machete and watched it die. A gruesome, but necessary act.

"Let's hope we don't have any more inside." Trent said nervously as his grip on his handgun tightened a bit as Duncan pushed open the glass doors.

It was clear that this building had been raided before. Items that would normally have lined the shelves were partially gone; much of it having been taken previously and some of it was scattered about on the floor. But there were other supplies, just much more sparse. The boys sighed but agreed to split up and search the place for whatever they could find; it was a fairly massive store after all.

Their experience inside the store didn't end up being too interesting. Duncan had broken into one of the manager's offices to see if anything interesting was in there, but nothing turned up. Once upon a time he might have stolen the cash he found, but it was worthless now. Still, it did give him a small sense of satisfaction to know that his criminal past meant nothing now. Trent had found a case of CDs, which seemed oddly out of place, but he took them anyway. Maybe he'd find something to play them in; a car perhaps if the group acquired some soon. Alejandro had found the majority of the food and eventually the three met back out front.

"Well I'd say this was productive." Alejandro stated, "Now to find the others and make our return trip."

And that's when a gunshot went off and hit one of them in the back. The other two jumped back in surprise as the person who was hit fell to his knees and collapsed. Another shot went off and just missed the other two. They had no choice but to flee as they had no clue where these shots were coming from.

"Holy shit!" Duncan yelled as another shot went whizzing over his head, "Who the fuck is shooting at us?"

"I have no idea," Alejandro admitted as he glanced back and saw Trent was laying, unmoving, on the ground, "I fear they killed Trent though. We must find the girls."

"What the hell is going on out here?" Jo demanded an answer as her group came storming out of the department store, "Why are you idiots-"

She screamed as Courtney tackled her to the ground so that the next shot didn't hit her square in the chest. The girls rolled off into the dust but quickly rose to their feet.

"Come on!" Brick shouted as he began running back the way they'd come, "We got to outrun these people!"

"I count at least three." Alejandro noted as the five person group fled, "All wearing black hoods."

"Ah fuck." Jo said with realization, "It's the group that betrayed us before. Maggots, prepare for battle!"

They all turned around and quickly spread out so as not to be in a big group. Duncan could now directly see where Trent's body was and he saw Alejandro was right: someone in a black hood was standing over him now with. Duncan fired his weapon at them and managed to get a hit, though not fatal.

As Jo's group opened fire and tried to hit those they could see, a previously unseen person also wearing a black hood threw something at them and before they knew it, a cloud of smoke erupted around them and billowed about. They all started coughing and were forced to stop shooting: they could wind up just hitting each other.

"What's the plan now?" Brick asked fearfully between choking.

"We flee." Courtney said simply, "We can't fight an enemy we can't see."

Nobody argued, but as they turned to run once again after admitting defeat, Jo couldn't help but voice something on everyone's mind, "Why not just shoot us? They shot Trent and could've killed us pretty easily. But they didn't; why?"

"Maybe you're old friends are sicker than you realized." Duncan said darkly as the five continued running, unpursued. Regardless, they knew this probably wasn't the last they'd seen of this mysterious group.

* * *

Trent awoke with a gasp and immediately tried to run. What he hadn't yet realized was that he was shackled to a wall of some kind in a fairly darkened room. Light filtered in from a slightly cracked ceiling and he could make out that a bandage of some kind had been placed on his body from the gunshot wound. A gunshot wound these people had caused. He began struggling again.

"Let me out of here!" Trent screamed in panic and fear as he attempted to get free of the chains but to no avail.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," A familiar female voice said as a figure wearing a black hood stepped into his line of vision, "you don't want to make this more complicated than it already is."

"Wh-who are you?" Trent asked and the girl before him removed the hood. His eyes widened in shock, "Gwen?"

* * *

 **You thought I was going to kill off Trent there didn't you? After killing off several people last time I wasn't willing to do that. Plus this truly is setting up the big story arc that's going to be the primary focus of the next several chapters. And what better way to do that then by revealing Gwen is still alive! And she's a part of this mysterious group Jo has been dropping hints about for chapters now. I will say that Gwen is the current #1 in my poll for character most wanted to survive and that may have slightly inspired me to write her back in sooner rather than later. Originally she was going to come back a lot later, but here she is. But what of the others who were with her back on the island? Are they still alive? Who are these mysterious people Gwen's with? And will Heather be able to take down Scott? Find out next time on Undead Drama!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B, DJ, Cameron, Sam, Staci, Geoff, Anne Maria, Katie**

 **ALIVE: Gwen (finally!), Heather, Duncan, Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Noah, Alejandro, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike/Mal, Dakota, Brick, Dawn**

 **UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet**


	14. Chapter 14: The Good Guys

**Half the characters might be dead, but this story isn't! It may have been a long time to wait, but I'm finally back with another chapter! I had a very strenuous, busy couple of months but hopefully that's settled down and I can get back to consistently updating this fanfiction. I'd like to take a second to thank those of you who reviewed and/or private messaged me during the hiatus to express your interest and hopes that I'd continue writing. It really helped inspire me to get back into it. Let's hope the momentum continues, eh?**

 **Last time out (since it's been so dang long) the run team consisting of Alejandro, Duncan, Trent, Courtney, Jo and Brick got attacked by mysterious people wearing black hoods. Turned out Gwen was one of them and Trent was captured. This chapter largely picks up where that left off and introduces a few new characters! And you'll finally learn what happened to our beloved cliff divers...**

 **But enough of all that, let's get into the meat of this and enjoy the chapter!**

 **WARNING: This story may contain scenes of swearing, violence, sexual activities and character death.**

* * *

Trent had to blink several times to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. Gwen really was standing before him, decked out in a thick black outfit that made her difficult to see in the flickering light of the shadowy chamber. But there was no mistaking the hair; the midnight blue shone through the darkness as she lowered the hood and faced her former lover with a haunted face.

"You're alive." Trent said the only thing that came to his muddled mind, forgetting for the moment that he was shackled to the wall, "I can't believe it."

"Believe it." Gwen said simply as she neared closer to him, "For better or for worse, I'm still alive."

"What happened to you? And the others?" Trent asked, remembering the last time he'd seen her was when she'd helped cause a vital distraction that led to his reunion with the group.

A darkness flickered over Gwen's face and she did not meet his gaze as she spoke, "You're lucky I convinced the others to patch you up, but soon enough they'll come asking questions. Questions I hope you have answers to."

"W-what?" Trent asked in bewilderment, slowly coming to note the cuffs digging into his arms, "Where are we? What others? Gwen I don't understand-"

"There's too much to explain with too little time." Gwen softened again, finally looking with fondness at the man she once loved, "I have to go, but just promise me something."

"Anything." Trent said instantly.

"Don't get yourself killed." Gwen told him, and before he could ask any further questions she melted back into the shadows, maneuvered her way to the exit door, and fled the scene.

Once outside, she had to readjust her vision; though she still felt obligated to put a hand up to shield her pale skin from the sun's rays. Once she had reset herself, she started off. Her boots crunched on the gravely ground beneath her as she moved about through the ghost town her group had raided mere hours ago. The same one they'd found Trent in; and she thought she'd seen Duncan too...

"Well?" An irritated female voice snapped Gwen out of her thoughts and she looked up to meet the gaze of the girl, "Is he conscious?"

The Goth wasn't too surprised to see her standing nearby the house they'd locked Trent up in. The girl in question was calculating, craft, and never one to miss an opportunity to learn something. Unlike Gwen, she didn't seem to be suffering any possible sun burn; a fact aided by her natural tanned tones. Her shoulder length black hair seemed to be in one massive curl, but oddly enough it seemed to be perfectly manageable: definitely by design. The girl pushed up her glasses and looked expectantly at Gwen; impatient.

Gwen considered not responding for a moment, but finally emitted a simple, "Yes Ellody, he's awake. Just don't hurt him, he's a good guy."

Ellody cocked her head to the side, as if she were studying Gwen, and gave a sad knowing smile, "Don't you know by now Gwen? There are no good guys anymore."

* * *

 _"We need to jump!" Harold's words echoed in Gwen's ears. Her heart was pounding as their small group stood atop the iconic Wawanakwa cliff; the ravenous zombies continuously pouring towards them and snarling, reaching for another meal._

 _The rest of Harold's words were a blur; Gwen saw Sierra get bit while protecting her beloved Cody, but she felt like she was numb to the pain. She should care, but she couldn't even concentrate on it. She vaguely made out LeShawna jumping off the cliff, and that seemed to at least spur her towards the cliff's edge. We need to jump, Harold had said._

 _Gwen ignored the ringing in her ears from the gunshots and jumped. She realized she was screaming, but the sound was muffled by her thoughts. This endless, horrific nightmare was surely about to end. Once she hit the water, she'd bolt upright in her cabin bunk bed and realize it wasn't real. Heather would be there to make a snide remark about her hair, LeShawna would defend her. Life would return to the way it was, the way it should be._

 _So she gasped when she hit the water, unwillingly allowing the lake water to enter her lungs. She felt her organs twist inside her body, the blood pooling in her brain as she struggled to keep consciousness and sank to the bottom. She desperately tried to kick her legs, but her body was shutting down. She couldn't breathe, she could hardly move. It was all real; she was disillusioned to reality. And reality was death._

 _She had resigned herself to her fate, and was nearing a full black out, when she felt hands pulling her up. Through her foggy vision, she couldn't see what was happening, but soon enough they broke the surface of the water and she could see her savior._

 _"Not today sugar." LeShawna was panting as she held Gwen up alongside her, "We ain't dying today, you hear?"_

 _Gwen managed a weak nod, but LeShawna was now focusing on the splash nearby. Harold and Izzy had jumped, and like the former two they'd survived. Neither of the redheads had an issue keeping themselves afloat and looked, roughly, alright._

 _"Chef and Cody are still alive up there." Harold wheezed as he spat out a little bit of water, "Sierra..."_

 _He didn't need to say more. Izzy, who was also panting but looked in the best shape, said, "We're all eventually going to die if we stay in the water. We need to swim to shore."_

 _"Girl you crazy." LeShawna shook her head, "That island is a death trap, we're trying to get away remember?"_

 _"We're in the middle of nowhere." Harold actually agreed with Izzy, "There's nowhere for us that's close enough we can swim to and actually survive. We'll all drown."_

 _"There's canoes on the beaches." Izzy added, "Well theoretically, that's where they usually were and Chris was way too lazy to move them when we were done using them."_

 _"Then we just have to hope our luck doesn't get any worse." Gwen stifled a bitter laugh, "That'll be a miracle."_

 _There was another splash close to where Izzy and Harold had landed. Unsurprisingly, the four already in the water saw that it was Chef Hatchet: and he was carrying Cody. Chef's strength allowed him to propel the pair above the surface of the water, and they could breathe easy again._

 _"You left her!" Cody shrieked, his face covered with a mix of lake water and salty tears, "We could have helped her!"_

 _"Your stalker was dead fruitcake! Dead!" Chef hollered back, his voice hoarse, "Ain't no saving someone from death."_

 _"We're swimming to the island to try and get those canoes." Harold explained to Chef, "We don't have much of an option."_

 _"Then let's-" Chef began but stopped as the group heard another splash. Then another, and another. And as the military veteran slowly looked up the cliff, he realized the zombies had finished with Sierra. And they came tumbling over the side of the cliff, into the waters below._

 _"Swim for the shore!" Chef barked, adrenaline surging through his veins once again, "And let's hope these fuckers are shitty in water."_

 _"LeShawna," Gwen coughed out her name as her friend continued aiding her to keep afloat, "just leave me. Don't die for me."_

 _"Girl, get a hold of yourself." LeShawna reprimanded as she kicked through the water as fast as she could, "I saved you back at Chris' manor, I saved you just now. And I'm damn sure I'm going to keep doing it as much as I need to. That's what sisters are for."_

 _Gwen looked appreciatively at her, nodded, and then attempted to help as best she could. Given that the two had landed closer to the beach than the others upon their initial dive, they were the furthest away from the zombie threat. But the others were having difficulties._

 _"Chef lookout!" Harold shouted a warning to the cook as he saw one zombie plummeting right towards where Chef and Cody were making slow pace through the water._

 _The zombie hit the boys dead on, surprising them in the process. They all temporarily went under the water at the force of the impact, and when they emerged it was clear that Cody was looking a little woozy. The undead remained unaffected and was crawling all over the back of Chef; trying to bite both of them._

 _"You piece of shit." Chef snarled and reared back his fist to punch. His knuckles connected with the zombie's face, rattling loose a few teeth. But the zombie felt no pain, and it lunged forward and forced Chef to let go of Cody. Dazed, it was all Cody could go to keep himself above the water._

 _The zombie took another lunge at Chef, and this time the slipperiness of the water caused Chef to lose his grip on the creature. But he ducked and the zombie went past him, and found itself practically right on top of Cody. It didn't seem to be able to swim on its own, but whenever it attached itself to someone who could, it was able to attack. So it reached its arms out towards the unprotected, vulnerable Cody and prepared to bite down._

 _And bite down it did, though not on Cody. Chef Hatchet had propelled himself forward and wrapped the zombie in the best chokehold he could manage in the water. The infected's teeth crunched down on Chef's muscled arm instead, inciting a painful grunt from the veteran._

 _But then a blade pierced through the side of the zombie's skull and it's struggles ceased. Chef glanced over and saw that Harold had come to the rescue with the only functional weapon he had left. Harold looked briefly at the bite on Chef's arm, but elected not to comment. Right now, it was all they could do to make it to shore._

 _Cody was sobbing as the group finally made it to the sandy shores of Total Drama Island. Not only had Sierra perished for him, but Chef Hatchet had been bitten on account of saving him._

 _"My fault." Cody choked out as he stared at Chef, "You're infected because of me..."_

 _"You think I don't know that?" Chef asked, "I don't need you reminded me every damn five seconds. Now help get the canoes into the water."_

 _"It's a good thing Izzy used these canoes during her RCMP avoiding days back in season one." Harold commented as he and the girl in question shoved one of the canoes towards the water, "We can use these to paddle to the mainland."_

 _"Just hurry it up y'all." LeShawna said as she and Chef began pushing a second canoe, "Those zombies are dealing with the others at the dock but it won't be too long till they're coming back for dessert."_

 _"The mainland is too far for us to paddle, we're gonna be exhausted." Chef told them solemnly, "We can make a pit stop at Boney Island. Not ideal, but hopefully those zombies haven't gotten there yet."_

 _"Well hope aboard the Izzy train!" Izzy called as she and Harold successfully got the first of the canoes in the water, "Come on LeShawna, it'll be like old times canoeing together!"_

 _"Girl, that was the challenge that eliminated you the first time." LeShawna recalled, though she didn't hesitant to climb into the boat that would hopefully increase her survival chances._

 _Chef had gotten the second canoe in the water, and without words he plucked Cody up off the ground and shoved him into the middle spot of the canoe. Gwen silently climbed into the back, and didn't voice her own memories of paddling to Boney Island with Cody as Chef climbed into the front part of the canoe. It nearly tipped due to his weight, but the other two were able to steady it and they were ready to set sail._

* * *

"You're very lucky." Ellody observed as she paced around the room Trent was being kept in, her shoes echoing as she walked, "If Gwen hadn't pled with us, we wouldn't have thought twice about killing you."

"Are you expecting me to thank you? You shot me!" Trent remarked, understandably outraged.

"You are conspiring with our enemies, which makes _you_ our enemy as well." Ellody told him icily, "Now, answer some of my questions and you will continue to live. Fail to comply with this simple request, and I'm afraid you'll soon be pushing up daises. Am I understood?"

Trent didn't deign to respond. Ellody took that as affirmation, so she cleared her throat and began, "According to what little the tight-lipped Gwen has told us since joining, we know you are Trent and were originally with her on an island. And with others. How many of these others are still alive?"

"How did you find Gwen?" Trent countered with a question of his own and she frowned, "I thought she was-"

"Dead?" Ellody finished his sentence for him, "Because you rode off on a yacht without her? Yes we know that much, thanks to her more talkative friends."

"So she wasn't the only survivor?" Trent realized with relief, "Who else?"

"Perhaps I'll be kind enough to give you an answer, but only if we return to the original exercise." Ellody looked a bit miffed, "Fortunately for you, I'm in a good mood today. But I'm done with pleasantries, so answer my question."

"Nine." Trent almost laughed as he momentarily thought of his old obsession, "Aside from me, nine of the others from the island are still alive. As far as I know anyway, maybe you shot more of my friends today."

"Don't expect sympathy, you're the ones who chose to work with those freaks." Ellody said with a vicious venom that made Trent falter in his attitude.

"Why do you hate them so much?" Trent inquired, his eyebrows scrunching in confusion, "What happened?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here." Ellody snipped, "And how many of Jo's group are still alive?"

"Eleven?" Trent sounded unsure and her eyes narrowed, "I don't know exactly, okay? We haven't been there all day, literally anything could have happened."

"What of Mal?" Ellody asked suddenly, an edge creeping into her already commanding voice.

"Mal? Never heard of them." Trent told her genuinely, but before anything else could be said on the subject, the door to the room was flung open and in stepped another familiar face to Trent.

His jaw dropped, "Cody?"

In spite of himself, Cody grinned and ignored the two who had followed him inside; neither were recognizable to Trent.

"I'm glad you're alive man." Cody said earnestly and then turned to Ellody, "Any reason why he's been chained up?"

"Because he's in league with the enemy." Ellody answered simply and turned to the other two with a withering, hateful look, "And I thought I told you two useless peons to guard the door and not let anyone in unless I said so. So what happened Leonard?"

"Well," The scrawny one wearing an odd looking green cloak, began, "I cast a hold portal spell on the chamber entry, but our magic did not have the proper time to set and thus the Codemeister was able to seek passage beyond!"

Leonard's assistant, a larger girl wearing what appeared to be a Viking helmet, randomly threw confetti into the air while Leonard raised his hands dramatically.

"I know I'm not supposed to ask questions," Trent began as he stared, "but are those two seriously live action role playing at a time like this?"

"You should not mock us, mortal." Leonard frowned at Trent, "We are followers of Myrcellius the dragon and he has granted us magic powers beyond your simple comprehension- ow!"

Leonard's monologue was cut short as Ellody kneed him in the balls. Leonard sank to his knees, his eyes beginning to water, and his pal Tammy did nothing more than just throw more confetti into the air.

"Get. Out." Ellody hissed at Leonard, and then at Tammy once again, "Now!"

With a fearful look at Ellody's legs, Leonard scampered out the door with Tammy close behind. Ellody still seemed rather annoyed, but she turned to Cody and said, "What are you doing in here Cody?"

"I heard the rumor about one of my old friends washing up." Cody answered and looked over at Trent again, "Seems the rumor was well founded. You can let him down, he's not dangerous."

"It would be foolish to assume anything of the sort." Ellody quipped, throwing a distrustful look at Trent, "No one is the same as they were before this apocalypse began. Friends are now foes, strangers are now allies. The dead walk among us. Don't assume anything, ever. There is no safety in assumptions; only death."

"Just let me talk to him then." Cody attempted a compromise, and when Ellody gave him a suspicious look he added, "You can be right outside and even have some more reliable guards than the wizard. There's no possible way we could get out, even if that's what I was planning on doing. Which it isn't."

After a long, painfully drawn out moment, Ellody relented, "Fine. I'll have Sky and Rodney standing watch outside and I'll be nearby. Don't try anything Cody. I have hope that you won't, but if you do you'll wish you hadn't. Clear?"

"Crystal." Cody answered, and gave her his signature gap toothed grin. She shot Trent one more hateful look before she swept out of the room, and the sounds of her presence being quelled as she closed the door behind her.

As soon as she was gone, Cody's smile vanished. He crossed the threshold quickly until he was right alongside Trent. He immediately began prodding Trent's shoulder, which prompted a cry of pain from the guitarist.

"Hey, hey easy!" Trent protested, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure your gunshot wound isn't infected." Cody murmured and he looked relieved, "Thankfully it isn't. You're lucky to be alive."

"You're one to talk." Trent snorted, still almost in disbelief that this was happening, "How the hell did you survive the island? And Gwen too, what about the others? What happened to the others?"

Cody looked a bit saddened as he said, "It's kind of a long story..."

* * *

 _Harold, LeShawna, Izzy, Chef, Cody and Gwen had been forced to paddle the canoes for a few hours before they finally saw the unmistakable mountain formations of Boney Island. The face of a demented skull outlined by the jagged rocks only added to the fuel of terror and death they'd experienced in the past twenty four hours. They hoped this rest stop would at least put a stopper in their demise._

 _"You." Chef grunted at Izzy after they'd pulled the canoes onto the beach, "Get some firewood. You're all staying on the beach to sleep in case you need to make a quick getaway."_

 _"Don't you mean we?" Izzy asked but stopped as she realized Chef had in fact been bitten, "Right, I'll go get firewood."_

 _Izzy disappeared into the trees, but it wasn't too long before she'd returned with sufficient wood to light a small campfire. No one seemed interested in talking while Izzy set about gathering rocks to make a little circle around the fire. They were all transfixed on the happenings of the day; the terrors and turmoil they'd suffered. Silence stretched for a good fifteen minutes before it was finally broken._

 _"We're all going to die, aren't we?" Gwen asked bitterly, sitting with her legs curled up to her chest, "There's no way to beat death."_

 _"Sierra's dead." Cody added glumly, "Owen's dead, Tyler's dead. The others are dead. And we will be soon too."_

 _"Cody-" Harold began but the shorter boy was continuing to speak._

 _"I didn't love her." Cody's voice was broken glass, "That's all I can think about. How much she was willing to sacrifice, how much she_ did _sacrifice for me. A boy she couldn't help but love, but who couldn't love her back all the same."_

 _"You cared for her." LeShawna insisted, giving a sidelong glance at Harold as she spoke, "That counts for something."_

 _"I did." Cody nodded, tears slipping down his cheeks, "A lot of good it did, huh? And now Chef-"_

 _"Boy listen up." Chef interrupted him, and the teenagers all went silent, "I knew damn well what was going to happen when I saved you from that fucking zombie. I knew the risks, I did it anyway. Shit happened. Now I'm going to die, but you lot aren't. Unless you give up like a bunch of pansies."_

 _None of the total drama contestants replied so Chef barreled on, "I have known all of you for years, years I would have rather spent doing nearly anything but be on this stupid reality show. But you know what one of the best things about doing it was? Teaching you all. I ran you guys through military training exercises, I taught you survival instincts. You may just have thought of it as grueling challenges, but those were essential life lessons. Now you have the chance to put them to good use."_

 _"And you know what?" Chef asked rhetorically as he leaned back, allowing the kids just to see his face through the crackling flames, "I'm ready. I been ready to die for years. Ever since my war days...I've been cheating death. Always outrunning it, keeping it at bay. But eventually it catches up with you. And I can't even say I'm disappointed. But I will be if all of you just go up and die without even trying to fight your way through this shit world."_

 _"Chef," Izzy blinked back unexpected tears, "that's the most thoughtful thing you've ever said and it still sounded like your usual barking."_

 _Chef gave her a toothy smile, though the pain was definitely starting to set in, and he said, "Y'all all thought I hated you; nah. Only reason this job was bearable was cause I got to pass on some stuff to a future generation. Something that I thought I'd lost since I never got to have kids. The woman I cared about...I lost her in the war."_

 _The contestants were all staring back and forth between themselves and Chef; all seemingly stunned at Chef opening up in his final moments._

 _"Everyone thought my war stories were bullshit." Chef snorted, "I told you, twenty five of us went into the jungle that night. Only five came back out. I was one of the five, my girlfriend was not. I still see her face, even now. She's always been sad, worried, disappointed. Right now, she's finally smiling again."_

 _The others realized Chef was staring up at the moon and smiling, "This time, you will be the five that came back out. And I'll fall with my platoon, the way I should have all those years ago."_

 _Chef's attention returned to the group around him, "Alright? Good. I'm ready then. Put me out of my misery, I ain't becoming one of those shit bags you hear?"_

 _"We hear you." Izzy found her voice again, and she put a hand on Chef's shoulder, "Thank you for your valiant service Chef Hatchet. We will never forget it."_

 _Chef and Izzy locked eyes and seemed to have a whole other conversation in the silence of their facial expressions. Then Chef leaned in to whisper something to the girl, something the others couldn't hear. Once that was accomplished, he nodded and leaned back._

 _Izzy looked at him with overwhelming pity, but she withdrew the knife she still had and drove it through the side of Chef's skull. It was an instant death, thankfully, and he felt no pain._

 _Izzy looked around at all the sullen faces around her and she said, "Now he can finally rest."_

* * *

"Holy shit dude." Trent said once Cody had concluded that part of his story, "I can't believe Chef is gone. Of everyone, I thought he'd survive this."

"It was my fault." Cody said, anger flashing onto his face for a moment, "Had he just let me die, he would be alive here and now. But I'm trying to move past it, I try not to dwell on it. I may as well live, right?"

"So what happened from there?" Trent pressed, "How did you end up...wherever we are?"

"We made it through the night, the five of us." Cody admitted, "And in the morning, we got in the canoes and rowed like hell for the mainland. It took us...God I don't even know how long. Must have been the whole day, but eventually we made it."

"Did you dock in the marina?" Trent asked but Cody shook his head.

"We didn't have any sense of direction of where we were going." Cody explained, "When we saw land we almost cried. Probably would have if we weren't already emotionally and physically exhausted. From there, we didn't know where to even start."

"How did you run in with these people?" Trent asked, his face souring as he was reminded of Ellody.

"We saved them shortly after we landed." Cody told him.

"How did you manage that with no bullets?" Trent asked.

"We distracted the dead long enough for their reinforcements to arrive." Cody answered, "We stumbled upon a few of their group being swarmed so we figured helping was the best thing we could do. It didn't take us long to realize that these zombies had been wreaking havoc for more than just the day or two we'd experienced. While we were on the island, doing promotional videos and photos for weeks...I think that's when the world really went to shit. We were just late to the party. We needed someone to take us in and explain what was happening. And they did. And with that, came the explanation of an enemy group. A group you've fallen in with..."

"Hey, that group took us in." Trent defended, "And they aren't bad."

"Really?" Cody asked, his pleasantness seeming to fade a bit, "What do you know of the feud between these two groups?"

"Not much, but this group attacked and massacred half of Jo's group after pretending to be nice to them." Trent said, distrust creeping into his tone, "Doesn't sound like a bunch of people I want to be around."

Cody actually laughed for a moment, "That's the lie they told you? Wow, not really close to the truth."

"So what is the truth?" Trent didn't seem like he was going to believe Cody's answer, "Enlighten me."

"Your 'friends'," Cody put air quotes around the term, "took in this group under false guises and pretenses. Fake assurances that they could work together. And the moment their guard was down, they struck. They killed members of this group and... _used_ them. Used them in ways I don't even want to imagine. I told you, we're the good guys here."

Trent seemed a bit confused at Cody's vagueness, but he responded to the last part, "Yeah, cause chaining me up to the wall and threatening me with death is truly outstanding. Ellody deserves an award."

"Yeah? And how did Jo's group treat you when you first arrived?" Cody countered.

Trent faltered for a moment before saying, "It was a...tense initial encounter. But they were just doing what they had to-"

"That's what we're doing here. Caution goes hand in hand with survival." Cody told him, before emitting a long sigh, "Look Trent, I don't want to fight with you. I'm honestly still shocked the five of us aren't the only ones who survived the island. Just cooperate and they'll release you in due time, I'm sure."

"So your new pals can roll up to where the others are and shoot them up? No thanks." Trent told him, "I already have blood on my hands, and until today I thought I had yours on mine too. I'm not going to sit by and be the reason the only people left in the world I love and care about are slaughtered."

"You think I want that?" Cody asked, clearly hurt, "I'm searching for a peaceful way to end this feud. But we got here after it started, the pieces are already in play. There's not much we can do."

"Then try harder." Trent offered coldly, "You can't let all of them die. Or I'll kill you myself."

Cody was a bit taken aback by the ruthlessness in Trent's voice, but he sensed the musician was being fully honest. Cody nodded sternly and said, "I'll try to think of another solution. For now, this is goodbye. One last note though: don't piss Ellody off too much. She's suffered a lot."

"We've all suffered." Trent said, turning his head to the side so he no longer was looking at Cody, "She's nothing special."

* * *

Ellody moved through the neighborhood of houses her group had claimed a few days after their falling out with Jo's group. She'd made sure Sky and Rodney were guarding the house the prisoner was being kept in before taking her leave to deal with other matters. As she walked the row of houses, she was glad to see signs of life inside as her group had taken up residence. It was a normal enough neighborhood, though importantly it was a gated community. And some of the houses were more defensible than others. The gate itself was a golden metal, that glinted strongly in the sunlight. Though as the sun began to set behind the horizon, Ellody found herself walking along the gravel road in just a sliver of daylight left. But she wouldn't be out much longer, her destination was approaching.

The final house at the cul-de-sac was the largest and nicest of the bunch. A fresh coat of white paint gave it a pristine, perfect look to it. Untouched by the apocalypse and the bloody horrors that came with it. A safe haven; a peaceful place. It was where the leaders had established their base of operations.

Ellody saw no guards, but she knew the door had a code that was required to be imputed before one could gain access. Once she typed in the four digit code, she heard the bolts moving out of place and she was able to open the door.

She was barely through the doorway and closing the front door when her ally was speaking, "What did you learn?"

Ellody turned to face her co-leader, who had her red hair neatly done up in bun. She studied Ellody with intelligent green eyes, that were framed by the circular glasses she was always seen wearing. Despite being relatively mousy, though, this girl had always had a commanding presence about her; and a bit of a radiative fear.

"The prisoner is opening up, slowly." Ellody admitted, "Based on a rough estimate, and an approximation of possible standard deviations of his response, we have sufficient evidence to believe that our enemies have somewhere from eighteen to twenty four in their group."

"So we're roughly even in terms of numbers." The red haired girl mused, "Did you ask him any specific questions about the people who recently joined up with Jo?"

"I didn't." Ellody felt her face heating with annoyance, "He wasn't answering to me."

"That's why I sent Cody." The red head waved a dismissive hand, "Hopefully he extracted a bit more information. We need to know what we're up against if we're going to defeat them."

"We have to defeat them Scarlett." Ellody implored her co-leader, "After what they did..."

"Never fear my friend." Scarlett smiled, though there was no mirth in her face, "I've been formulating a strategy that should aid us substantially in the vanquishing of our foes. All I need is a wolf in sheep's clothing. And I know just who that person should be. Max!"

Scarlett barked the name, and scurrying in came a comically shaped boy with odd purple hair, "Yes minion, what is it? I'm hard at work constructing my evil-"

"That's great Max," Scarlett's eye twitched but she kept it together, "I'm sure that's very important. But right now I need you to go find someone for me, can you do that?"

"Maybe if you ask nicely. You've gotten rather impudent haven't you, minion." Max harrumphed and crossed his arms.

Scarlett's eye twitched again and she looked like she was close to blowing a gasket, but she took a few deep breaths and calmly said, "Please, go and find Gwen. Then bring her to me, I need her to do a job."

"Fine." Max submitted and waddled out of the room, much to Scarlett's relief.

"I swear, one day..." Scarlett said ominously, purposely not finishing her own sentence.

"What exactly is Gwen going to be useful for?" Ellody asked.

"Oh my dear Ellody, I thought you were a genius. Surely you already figured out my plan?" Scarlett had a mocking amusement to her now.

Ellody took just a moment longer before it dawned on her, "You're going to use her relationships with the people in this Trent's group to-"

"Infiltrate Jo's compound and wipe them out from the inside." Scarlett concluded before giving a wry, malicious smile, "Like I said, a wolf in sheep's clothing."

* * *

 **There you have it, the main plot of the next several chapters is officially up and running. I'm curious what you guys think about the new group (those we've met anyway, I promise the rest of the group will be introduced soon it just didn't seem necessary this chapter). And are you upset by what happened to Chef Hatchet? I have to say that wasn't the original plan for his character, but I felt like it was a good way for him to go and force the others to survive without him. Let me know what you think!**

 **DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Ezekiel, Lindsay, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B, DJ, Cameron, Sam, Staci, Geoff, Anne Maria, Katie, Chef Hatchet**

 **Group 1: Heather, Duncan, Bridgette, Courtney, Noah, Alejandro, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike/Mal, Dakota, Brick, Dawn**

 **Group 2: Gwen, LeShawna (presumably), Izzy (presumably), Trent (prisoner), Harold (presumably), Cody, Sky, Max, Scarlett, Rodney, Leonard, Ellody, Tammy, others not introduced yet**


End file.
